(Photo: Schematic illustrating the Himalayan hill-top atmospheric bacterial community influenced by horizontally transported desert dust–associated pathogens and vertically uplifted polluted air carrying airborne pathogens from the Himalayan foothills, collectively contributing to human health impacts over the Eastern Himalayas.)

A new study has identified airborne pathogens carried along with elevated desert dust plumes from Western India to the top of the Eastern Himalayas that are associated with respiratory and skin diseases.

The Himalayan hill-top atmosphere is widely considered beneficial for human health. Cold climatic conditions and hypoxia intensify vulnerability in these regions. There is limited evidence connecting airborne microbial exposure to respiratory disease outcomes in high-altitude Himalayan populations, and the microbiological dimension of transboundary dust transport remains poorly understood. This knowledge gap prompted researchers to conduct the present study.

Read in Hindi: रेगिस्तानी बैक्टीरिया हिमालय पहुंचकर स्वास्थ्य पर डाल रहे हैं असर

Through over two years of continuous monitoring of dust storms rising from the arid regions of western India, Researchers from Bose Institute, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology, found that powerful dust storms can travel hundreds of kilometres, crossing densely populated and polluted Indo-Gangetic Plain before finally settling over the Himalayan hilltops. They carry airborne bacteria, including pathogens that can affect human health.

In addition to respiratory and skin diseases due to the transported pathogens, vertical uplift injects locally sourced pathogens into the high-altitude atmosphere, where they mix with long-range travellers arriving from afar. Together, they reshape the bacterial community floating above the Himalayas, contributing to gastrointestinal infections as well.

The results of this first-of-its-kind study, published in the Journal, ‘Science of the Total Environment’, quantitatively demonstrate the perturbation of the atmospheric bacterial community over the Himalayas due to horizontal long-range dust transport and vertical uplifting of foothill air pollution, which has direct implications on public health.