News Desk Shirin Nazirmadova, a doctor from southern Tajikistan, has been saving for years to afford the hajj pilgrimage that all able Muslims are required to make once in their lives. But like millions of others, Nazirmadova’s dream journey of a lifetime was shattered when Saudi Arabia decided last month to bar international visitors from making the pilgrimage this year …

Want to learn more about National Geographic’s feature on snow leopards and community conservation? Ajay Bijoor takes you behind the scenes of the story   Getting to know the people of Kibber My first interaction with a larger group of local people in Kibber was at a livestock insurance meeting. Winter hadn’t set in fully, but the evenings had grown …

Sajjad Ahmad   GILGIT-BALTISTAN will hold elections on Aug 18, 2020, for the Legislative Assembly’s 24 constituencies. The government’s five-year term ended on June 24. The Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Order of 2009 divides the administration of the region into the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly (GBLA) and the Gilgit-Baltistan Council. The reform package grants some legislative powers to the Assembly but …

Tourism and climate change are transforming the fragile mountain ecosystems in the Karakorams, Himalaya-Hindu Kush and Pamirs. Ang Rita Sherpa, a native of Gokyo, in an article in Nepali Times, reflects on the increasing pressure of human activities on natural spaces and the lakes in the Solokhumbu district of Nepal. Chairman of Partners Nepal, a local nonprofit organisation that helps Himalayan communities …

Scientists hope recent border clashes and the pandemic will not derail the limited progress made on research cooperation over the past decade In late April, environment ministers from eight countries of the Hindu-Kush-Himalayan region were supposed to gather for a rare meeting in the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu. They were due to discuss cooperation and science-based policymaking in the region. …

  The headwaters of 10 major rivers originate near some of Earth’s highest points. Known as the world’s “third pole,”  or Baam-e-Jahan (roof of the world), the land of Mount Everest and other peaks holds the largest concentration of perennial ice outside of the polar regions. Along with snow and rain from the mountains, this ice helps supply the river …

blob:https://www.rferl.org/f0105167-7ca9-4487-9108-c8abda861a2b Afghanistan lost $1 million in international funding this year making the drive to halt heroin production in Badakhshan even more challenging Herald Report Afghanistan’s security forces have stepped up their crackdown on heroin labs and poppy farms in Taliban-controlled regions of the country’s northeastern Badakhshan province. Its long border with Tajikistan makes the province one of the main heroin production …

Yamga Wakhani Museum is a treasure trove of artefacts, pottery, musical instruments and various objects invented by or remained in use of the Mubarak Wakhani Farman Ali Mubarakkadam Ibn Abdullo, popularly known as Mubarak Wakhani, was a multi-faceted personality — a philosopher, poet, musician, astronomer, art teacher, and Sufi (mystic) scholar — from Badakhshan, Tajikistan. Born in 1839 in a small village …

Agricultural village in Badakhshan, Afghanistan. Photo by Christopher Wilton-Steer/UCA Herald Report In Pamir mountains of High Asia region with limited agricultural lands, rugged topography, and large gradients, the preservation of agrobiodiversity and an appreciation of traditional knowledge about food systems are essential ingredients of a sustainable future. Hence the University of Central Asia’s Mountain Societies Research Institute (MSRI) has begun …

British colonial officer John Biddulph’s book is considered as one of the pioneering works in English that provided an insight to the secluded societies, lifestyles, languages,  customs, marriages, festivals, ruling families and general characteristics of the many tribes that inhabited the Hindu Kush region Reviewed by Basharat Wakhani Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh written by British colonial officer John Biddulph is considered as one of the …