The Himalayas mountains geographically encompass Nepal and Bhutan and parts of India, Pakistan, and China. The Himalayas, referred to as the water tower of Asia, is a crucial ecological and geological asset for billions of people in South Asia that provides ecosystem services to the mountain as well as downstream populations in terms of food, energy, water, medicines, and tourism among others. However, with rising environmental change, it is increasingly becoming vulnerable to disasters including landslides, earthquakes, unbalanced river flows, glacier melt, and air pollution.
Since it is a heavily politicized and militarised region, with states embroiled in complex border and political disputes, the security perspective in the region has been dominated by the military and political sectors in terms of traditional border disputes between the countries leading to mutual distrust. Non-traditional security threats including environmental insecurities like climate change, and water-food-energy insecurities have been recognized as a challenge but remain at the periphery of the security discourse. However, the countries have yet to be able to devise a regional effort toward addressing them. As a result, there is an emerging “security complex” in the Himalayas' environmental sector, leading to complex security interdependence amongst the countries.
Since, the environment as an issue has remained at the periphery of regional discourse, the paper seeks to discuss the challenges and opportunities that the Himalayas witness in terms of securitizing the environment and governing the mountain system. Contrary to other mountain regions like the Alps and the Carpathians, the region has not been able to develop an effective way of governance. It discusses, the environmental insecurities in the region and how they are forming into a security complex of its own in the environmental sector. Furthermore, it discusses challenges and opportunities in governing the mountain system of the Himalayas. Moreover, it draws a comparison of the Himalayan mountains and other mountains like the Alps in terms of regional governance. Lastly, it discusses the prospects and scope for securitizing and effective governance of the Himalayan mountains.
