‘Kuhls’ can help tide over water crisis in Hindu Kush areas of Himachal, says expert

The answer to the mounting water crisis in the Hindu Kush Himalayas covering the region of Chamba, Kullu, Kangra, Mandi, Shimla, Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti districts of Himachal Pradesh lies not in costly modern infrastructure but in centuries-old traditional irrigation channels, says Kesar Chand of the GB Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment in Kullu. Together with Prof J Mark Baker of Cal Poly Humboldt, Kesar has published a paper in ‘Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability’ arguing that systems such as Ladakh’s ‘yura’ and the ‘kuhl’ of the western Himalayas hold transformative potential for climate resilience.

The Hindu Kush Himalayas region, often called the water tower of South Asia, is undergoing rapid urbanisation, which is depleting critical water resources, triggering severe scarcity, erratic rainfall and destructive flooding in Nepal, India, and Bhutan.

Kesar points out in the research paper that urban expansion is swallowing peri-urban agricultural land that once relied on gravity-fed earthen irrigation networks. When properly maintained, these traditional channels do more than irrigating crops. They naturally recharge groundwater, manage torrential storm water, prevent aquifer depletion and reduce flooding during extreme rain events. In essence, they function as ready-made blue-green infrastructure.

Kesar and his co-author state that rather than dismantling these systems to make way for concrete development, they should be integrated into formal urban planning. They propose that towns and cities in the Hindu Kush Himalayas region adopt urban codes and legal easements that protect traditional channels as critical infrastructure. Complemented by managed aquifer recharge techniques and community-based water management, these nature-based solutions can improve both water quality and availability while shrinking the environmental footprint of urban growth.

Kesar states that long-term policies and institutional support are essential for revitalising these networks. As climate change is intensifying both droughts and deluges, protecting traditional irrigation systems is not about romanticising the past. It is a practical, cost-effective strategy for building sustainable, climate-resilient urban futures in one of the world’s most fragile mountain ecosystems.

As the Hindu Kush Himalayas grapple with the pressures of urbanisation, Kesar’s research offers a clear path forward to look to tradition, protect living water systems and let nature guide resilience.