CLIMATE CHANGE, MALARIA AND INDIAN HIMALAYA

Climate change is likely to spread malaria to new areas in the Indian Himalayas, and lengthen the periods in which the infection is spread in a number of districts, according to projections from malaria researchers in India. A study indicated that malaria could spread to districts in three states where it is currently absent — Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir — during the next 20 years. In the eastern Himalayas, in north-eastern India, the window of malaria transmission would increase from 7–9 to 10–12 months in length. The region is humid and wet, with mild winters, which makes it "highly conducive for mosquito breeding, survival and transmission" of vector-borne diseases.

August 12- http://www.scidev.net/en/south-asia/news/climate-change-to-increase-malaria-in-indian-himalayas.html