Depletion of Habitat of a Himalayan Fish May Signal Danger to Indus River

The second in an occasional series on the Indus River

Snow Trout is native to the Indus River in the Himalayas. This picture is of the Indus River in the outskirts of Leh, India on Oct. 9, 2020. Venus Upadhayaya/Epoch Times

LEH, India—The Indus River system sustains over 200 million people in Asia. But its ecosystem is fragile, and the depletion of the habitat of the Snow trout, a fish native to the river, warns of greater changes regarding the health of the river itself, according to experts.

The Indus originates in Tibet, crosses the disputed India-China border, meanders through Leh-Ladakh before entering the disputed territory between India and Pakistan in Gilgit, and finally flows through Pakistan before joining the Arabian sea.