'Sacred Landscape' is a transboundary programme, facilitated by ICIMOD and endorsed by three governments -- China, India and Nepal. They have defined Kailash as a landscape looking at it from various aspects, because of the ecological, cultural and physiographic significance. The headwaters of all the major rivers -- from the Brahmaputra to the East, the Indus to the North, the Sutlej to the West, and the Karnali to the South -- emerge from this mountain. It is a big landscape, but is ecologically very fragile due to the impacts of climatic and non-climatic factors.
The programme
The 'Sacred Landscape' programme was designed as a conservation management strategy for the three countries. It emerged in its initial phase as a conservation programme but then, as soon as it started getting into the implementation phase, particularly with partners like DFID and UKAid, we got into more than conservation and the livelihoods component came in. That, along with the cultural component, is all to do with communities. So now it is a conservation and development programme. 
The reason for springs
When we initiated this programme, we had not considered a focus on water. When we started implementing it in 2013 by conducting need assessments, every need that people expressed was centred around water. That is when we realised that on both sides of the border, springs is something that concerned people. That's why we got into it. We didn't have an understanding of the hydrogeology since ICIMOD works on river basins, and not on groundwater.
What we saw of the people's dependence on springs compelled us to consider working on spring conservation. Why are Himalayan springs drying up? It is not just in Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Kashmir. From Afghanistan to Arunachal, people are saying that springs are dying. So we see it as a very regional phenomenon and we have a mandate to work on regional issues. Springs is not a concern in Tibet, because it is an arid region and there is no rainfall anyway. But in the rest of the Sacred Landscape, it is.
We realised that in a sacred landscape, water is intrinsically linked to cultures. A dhara or naula is also a god or goddess. We can relate it to that, that if it is drying up or contaminated, our beliefs and cultures are at risk. People resonate with these kind of thoughts. When we tell them that your culture is connected with a certain source which is now contaminated, then cultural aesthetics and environmental conservation are intertwined. We are still exploring all this but water is a key entry point into landscape conservation.
Opportunities for research
There is a data gap on the dependence of the mountain population on springs. We know that 80-90% of the population of the mid-Himalayas depends on springs but there is no accurate data. This figure comes from ACWADAM's initial assessments in Sikkim, Meghalaya and Uttarakhand. In Pithoragarh district in India and Dharchula district in Nepal, we have started mapping springs, including hydrogeology and sanitation --ACWADAM will facilitate this. In Nepal, we have the Geology Department of Tribhuvan University.
Opportunities for policy change
Nepal is interesting because there is no groundwater policy. There is a Board, but there is no evidence or science-based advocacy for policy. Because we are headquartered there, we have access to the Ministry and it is relatively easy to influence policy, especially just now. In Sindpal Chowk and Kaveri districts that were hardhit by the two recent earthquakes, direct observation of some springs indicates that the discharge has increased. We haven't measured, but people say, "paani aur aa raha hain, more water is coming in". In some places the springs were there, but they've been totally disrupted and there's no water. There are also new springs that have emerged in places where there weren't any.
So the whole geology aspect has come into focus, and it is timely to get the Groundwater Board of Nepal to look at it as a policy. Looking at a mindset, if we look at groundwater, my interest is in looking at it as a common pool resource. What is seen is very easy to deal with. We can see the forests and the land and can say, "this defined area is community property". So everyone has access. But we can't see groundwater. And that is what we want to advocate from ICIMOD, that whether it is private land, or forest land, or state land, groundwater is a common pool resource. We are shifting the mindset from 'source' to 'resource'. Groundwater is not a source.
Lithodiversity
When we look at forests, land and farms, it is obviously linked to biodiversity. We see it at a surface level -- forests, species, etc. What people, including scientists, don't understand is that what is underneath is also an ecosystem. The term that we should use now I think is lithodiversity. The lithosphere is an ecosystem in itself. If a spring dries up, it has a direct consequence on the subsurface. The forests will go dry, the soil will go dry, the nutrients in the soil will reduce. If there is a wetland that supports birds and it dries up, then where is your ecosystem? We do not have a very holistic concept of the ecosystem without hydrogeology. I think that biodiversity in conjunction with lithodiversity is something we need to look into in the future, and this springs initiative is giving a very good understanding of it.
Nawraj Pradhan is the Associate Coordinator for the Kailash Sacred Landscape Conservation and Development Initiative under the Transboundary Landscape Regional Programme.