The high Himalayan mountains in the north of India are important sources for generating and maintaining the climate over the entire northern belt of the Indian subcontinent. They also influence extreme weather events, such as the western disturbances over the region during winter. The work presented here describes some current trends in weather and climate over the western Himalaya and suggests some possible explanations in the context of climate change. The work also shows how the special features of Indian orography in the western Himalaya affect climate change in the long term, changing the pattern of precipitation over the region. Data analysis of different ranges of the western Himalaya shows significant variations in temperature and snowfall trends in the past few decades. Possible explanations for the changing climate over the western Himalaya are proposed, in terms of variations in cloudiness. The possible effects of climate change on the number of snowfall days and the occurrences of western disturbances over the western Himalaya are also analysed.

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The looming problem of resistance to antibiotics in microorganisms is a global health concern. The drug-resistant microorganisms originating from anthropogenic sources and commercial livestock farming have posed serious environmental and health challenges. Antibiotic-resistant genes constituting the environmental “resistome” get transferred to human and veterinary pathogens. Hence, deciphering the origin, mechanism and extreme of transfer of these genetic factors into pathogens is extremely important to develop not only the therapeutic interventions to curtail the infections, but also the strategies to avert the menace of microbial drug-resistance. Clinicians, researchers and policymakers should jointly come up to develop the strategies to prevent superfluous exposure of pathogens to antibiotics in non-clinical settings. This article highlights the present scenario of increasing antimicrobial-resistance in pathogenic bacteria and the clinical importance of unconventional or non-antibiotic therapies to thwart the infectious pathogenic microorganisms.

Continuous decline in potable water sources has raised serious concerns over human health. Developing countries are the most affected in this regard due to a lack of proper hygiene maintenance. Sikkim, an Eastern Himalayan state with mountains as the predominant topological features, harbors several perennial natural springs. Spring water is the primary source of potable water for the population in four districts of the state viz. East, West, North and South. Recent outbreaks of water-borne diseases and the relative lack of scientific studies on its potential correlation with the water quality of the area have educed this study. Physicochemical parameters of springs, community reservoirs, and household water were analyzed by ICP-MS and multi probe meter. Using the membrane filtration method, the microbial quality of the water samples during different seasons was assessed, primarily evaluating the presence of fecal indicators viz. Escherichia coli , total coliform and Enterococcus . The seasonal risk category of the water sources was also determined. Most of the physicochemical parameters of the spring water were within the permissible limits of WHO standards. However, water from four districts was recorded with traces of toxic heavy metals like mercury (0.001–0.007 mg/l), lead (0.001–0.007 mg/l), and selenium (0.526–0.644 mg/l), which are above the permissible limits of WHO. All the spring water samples were categorized as Mg-HC type and can be predicted as shallow fresh ground water based on the piper analysis. Microbial confirmatory testing indicated severe fecal contamination of water sources with high counts of total coliform (TC), Escherichia coli (EC) and Enterococcus (EN). The highest level of TC was recorded from West Sikkim (37.26 cfu/100 ml) and the lowest in North Sikkim (22.13 cfu/100 ml). The highest level of contamination of E. coli and Enterococcus was found in East Sikkim (EC = 8.7 cfu/100 ml; EN = 2.08 cfu/100 ml) followed by South Sikkim (EC = 8.4 cfu/100 ml; EN = 2.05 cfu/100 ml). There was a significant positive correlation between the contamination levels of the spring water and the community reservoir tank. As far as the seasonal variation is concerned, the rainy season showed the most contamination with coliform correlating with a high incidence of different water-borne diseases (East = 86%; West = 100%; South = 100%; North = 80%).

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