Mountains and their forest ecosystems are regarded as the water towers of the world. A good example is the extraordinarily massive Himalayan Mountains which have shaped the climate of the Indian subcontinent, also provide water and soil to the Gangetic plains. The important ecosystem services of the Western Himalayan forests to the people in the Gangetic plains are:

1. maintaining water flow in rivers and lakes which contributes to pollution control and helps maintain aquatic diversity and soil and water storage.

2. controlling flood peaks and erosion.

3. contributing to rapid soil formation, particularly in oak forests, thus nursing crop-fields both in hills and plains by providing soil and nutrients.

4. carbon sequestration and climate stabilization.

5. prevention and slope sterilization of landside sites through the process of

6. succession in which nitrogen fixing woody species play an impor tant role.