Forests are natural carbon reservoirs that play an important role in the global carbon cycle for storing large quantities of carbon in vegetation and soils. Carbon stored in pool helps in mitigating climate change by carbon sequestration. The vulnerable countries to changing climate such as Bhutan, Nepal, and India require a full understanding of carbon dynamics as well as baseline data on carbon stock potential to mitigate anticipated risks and vulnerabilities (RVs) through climate change. The scope of such RVs are trans boundary in nature, however, the comparative studies at regional scale are still scanty. Therefore, the aim of this review is to assess the carbon stock potentials of selected forest types in the eastern Himalayan area, with an emphasis on Bhutan, India, and Nepal. This review paper is based on published articles, information from websites and considerable data from National forestry reports of India and Bhutan; emphasizing on aboveground biomass and soil organic carbon stock. The review showed that carbon stock potential is highly dependent on stand density, above-ground biomass, species richness and forest types. The sub-tropical forest was found to have larger carbon capacity and sequestration potential. SOC concentration and tree biomass stocks were significantly higher at the high altitude where there is less human disturbance. In general, forest coverage has increased compare to previous year in Bhutan, India and Nepal which ultimately leads to higher carbon stock potential. It is mainly due to strong policies and different strategies for conservation of forest management have reduced mass destruction despite a growing population. Despite the rules, deforestation continues to occur at various scales. However, it can be stated that the government and citizens are working hard to increase carbon stock potential, mostly through afforestation and community forest creation. In addition, it is recommended to practice sustainable forest management, regulated and planned cutting of trees and proper forest products utilization.

Smoking is common among youths due to the increasing pace of modernization. It is also a major public health problem worldwide, causing preventable deaths and giving socio-economic burdens to society. Despite strict surveillance and the Tobacco Control Act of Bhutan, Bhutanese youths are increasingly found smoking. However, Bhutan has limited studies on smoking, particularly focusing on high school students. Thus, this study determined the prevalence of smoking among high school students of Thimphu, Bhutan. The self-structured questionnaires were distributed to a sample of 357 students determined using the Yamane formula. The result showed that the overall prevalence of smoking was 48.5%. More male students (63.6%) were found smoking than female students (28.3%). Students smoked different forms of tobacco products, such as cigarettes, cigars, hookah, and bidis, but commonly used tobacco product was cigarettes (63.4%). The most cited reasons for smoking were addiction, followed by peer pressure and outlook fashion. The risks of tobacco use are highest among those who start early and continue its use for a long period. Therefore, the early age of smoking initiation underscores the urgent need to intervene and protect high school students from falling prey to smoking addiction.

Water is indispensable for life since it is a basic need and is also important for economic activities. Although Bhutan has one of the highest per capita water resource availability in the world with 94,500 m3/capita/annum, the imbalance of geographical and temporal distributions is leading to experience of shortages in local areas.This study determined the shortage of water supply and its socio-economic impacts in Laptsakha community under Punakha,Bhutan.The semi structured questionnaires were distributed to the household of 74 following census method sampling.The result showed that the climate change had significant effect on water scarcity (R²=.208, p<.05). There was a moderate positive correlation between total income and total spent on buying food items (r=304, p<.05); however, there was no significant between total annual incomes and annual expenditure on materials to cope up water shortage (r=.209, p >.05). Ability to maintain hygiene was significantly affected by numbers of days the water was available in the tap per week H(2)=7.030, p<.05). The findings from the study also shows that due to decrease of water supply, it has adverse impacts on total annual income of the households and on their health.This study concluded that water shortage has adversely impact on socio economic of the people of Laptsakha Chiwog, which requires implementation of new strategies and actions towards allocating new source of water for households.

The current study was carried out among the female students of The Royal University of Bhutan to evaluate the relationship between academic performance and self-esteem, and the factors affecting self-esteem. The study adopted concurrent triangulation design of mixed methodology to collect and analyse the data. A total of 491 female students participated in the survey and of which 34 of them participated in focus-group interview. The result of the quantitative analysis showed that there is a positive relationship between academic performance and self-esteem (rho=.170, p<.05), which attests to the similar earlier findings. Qualitative analysis explored Ackerman's nine factors influencing self-esteem. Of the nine factors influencing self-esteem, parental influence was shown to have the most effect on the participants' self-esteem. Based on the findings, the current study made a number of recommendations.