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Nothing too surprising in this map of human dispersion on the planet. But on closer look, I had never appreciated how the highest densities in India and Bangladesh concentrate along a continual band south of the Himalayas:
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Even setting aside the challenges with respect to basic infrastructure, food and water under existing circumstances, that area also seems most likely to be on the front line with respect to climate change: melting glaciers and declining water supply, sea-level rise and loss of agricultural land, population migration and political instability. Complications.
Gwynne Dyer predicted exactly that in Climate Wars many years ago. India and Pakistan’s relationship is strained now – just add drought and see what happens over the next couple of decades…
It’s no surprise that the majority of Indians are living among that line. That whole region is in close proximity of two of the greatest Indian rivers; Ganga and Yamuna. This was a descion made centuries ago by early settlers and has only been carried on.