Research Projects

The Himalayas, with their diverse climatic conditions, significantly impact global atmospheric circulation. Precipitation in the region, influenced by the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) and mid-latitude westerlies (MLWs), affects the socio-economic growth of billions of people in South Asia. A slight deviation in precipitation intensity can cause significant losses, including droughts and floods. The recent rise in extreme precipitation episodes requires urgent attention to understand the forcing factors to these hydrological extremes. Short and long-term plans are needed to understand future probabilities of extreme events and implement proactive management strategies. Long-term meteorological data and high-resolution palaeoclimatic records are lacking in the Indian sub-continent, particularly the Himalayan region. To understand the signatures of global and regional climate events, it is necessary to prepare high-resolution palaeoclimatic records with an absolute record of climate variables from the Himalayas. Lake sediments are widely used as a robust archive to deduce regional climate variability in the past. This study aims to unravel post-LGM precipitation and temperature changes in the western Himalaya by sampling lakes at different altitudes from Himachal Pradesh. The generated data will enhance our understanding of natural climatic forcings and predictive capabilities in changing global climate scenarios.