Back to news
17 Aug 2017 | Blog

Connecting Pixels to People: A case Study of the Gandaki River Basin

Ishaan Kochhar & Amina Maharjan

1 min Read

70% Complete

Nepal is experiencing a massive out-migration of the youth and labour migration is becoming an important factor in securing an alternative livelihood. Census data of 2011 indicates that 13 of the 19 districts of the Gandaki Basin have an absentee population of over 10%. It is a well-known fact that agriculture and remittance are the two main pillars of the economy in Nepal contributing to over 60% of the GDC. There is attribution here of the current state of agriculture in Nepal, to the absentee population in the basin.

There is a common Nepalese saying: ‘Panch padhyo halo chhodyo, Das padhyo thalo’, which literally translates to: ‘Those educated up to Grade Five leave the plough and those educated up to Grade Ten leave the village’. In a country like Nepal, where agriculture is the backbone of the economy, it is the main livelihood source for more than 80% of the rural population. Agriculture is portrayed as the occupation of uneducated and unskilled people. Therefore, educated youth prefer to migrate in search of better employment opportunities. A worrisome phenomenon has been observed in recent years, especially in the mid hills, of fertile agriculture lands being abandoned. At the same time, rural-urban mobility is having serious implications for downstream areas. Whatever studies on human mobility exist in Nepal, they do not give a clear picture of its scale and also often fail to analyse ground realities. So, there is little scientific evidence to support this narrative. To make it evident, we have used a mix of macro-scale top-down approaches (using geospatial and remote sensing) and bottom-up qualitative methods (in-depth interviews, focus groups discussion and participatory research).

<<READ MORE>>

Stay current

Stay up to date on what’s happening around the HKH with our most recent publications and find out how you can help by subscribing to our mailing list.

Sign Up

Related Content

Continue exploring this topic

8 Nov 2016 Blog
Monasteries natural advocates for sustainability and conservation

According to Buddhist belief, religion and the environment are intertwined. Buddhists believe religion is inextricable from the environment itself. Rites ...

18 Mar 2019 Cryosphere
To share is to care, for the HKH and beyond

Scientists struggle with research challenges as they endeavour to improve our understanding of rapid changes in the environment and their ...

22 May 2019 Blog
International Day for Biological Diversity 2019 “Our Biodiversity, Our Food, Our Health”

Freshwater fish and fishing communities of the Hindu Kush Himalaya: looking at an oft-neglected ecological and livelihood challenge It would not ...

11 Jul 2016 Blog
A fine balance: Water and warmth in the Upper Indus Valley

Between the three highest mountain ranges on earth – Himalaya, Karakorum and Hindu Kush – the effects of climate change ...

8 Mar 2018 Blog
Empathy, compassion, and action for change

A society's progress can be assessed by looking at how women and children are treated in that society. In terms ...

20 May 2016 Blog
Mainstreaming Biodiversity: Sustaining People and their Livelihoods

George Washington once rightly said, “The most healthful, the most useful and the noblest employment of man is none other ...

20 Jun 2018 Blog
Hidden Contributors in Kilns Perspective from Dhading District

The number of brick kilns is burgeoning in Nepal: even from ICIMOD’s rooftop you can see chimneys smoking away in ...

10 Oct 2018 Blog
Dobato, Taking the Road Less Travelled

In Nepali, the word dobato means a point where two roads diverge. The village of Dobato in Ilam District, eastern ...