Research Interests
Planetary-scale, human-induced environmental changes such as climate change and land-use change are impacting the health and well-being of marginalized mountain communities across the Himalayas. This is more than just an abstract subject to me; it is rooted in my personal story.
Growing up in a remote mountainous village, I have experienced firsthand the debilitating effects of hazards such as glacial lake outburst floods, flash floods, debris flow, landslides, earthquakes, and snow avalanches on our socioeconomic conditions and sources of livelihoods.
With each passing year, the remote mountain communities in Gilgit-Baltistan have become increasingly susceptible to these hazards. In these precarious situations, these communities either choose to live in the same area or migrate internally to urban areas. When they migrate to urban areas, pre-existing socioeconomic issues further exacerbate their socioeconomic vulnerabilities. When they choose to stay back in their ancestral lands, climate-related hazards pose a constant threat to their physical safety and health as well as their quality of life and mental well-being. These challenges have motivated me to focus on understanding, analyzing, and addressing planetary-scale human-induced environmental changes impacting the mental health and well-being of remote mountain communities across the Himalayas.
In countries like Pakistan, where mental well-being is a sensitive topic, it is even more challenging to talk about mental health outcomes and lived experiences related to the loss of loved ones, properties, livelihood sources, and social networks due to hazards. To close this gap in knowledge, I would like to codesign and coproduce empirical studies with the remote mountain communities in Pakistan to explore strategies and coproduce indigenous knowledge for reducing the impacts of environmental risks on mental health and the quality of life.
Our theory of change is that codesigning and coproducing research on a sensitive topic such as mental health will enhance the confidence among the remote mountain communities to talk more openly about the well-being of their mental health. This research approach will strengthen their adaptive capacity to manage any stressful situation with confidence and hope.