Himalayan villagers have won the backing of climate science for their suspicions that snow cover, water resources and the ecosystem are changing in their region, a study published yesterday said.

The authors of the research carried out by Britain’s Royal Society say this is the first time that subjective perceptions about climate change have been put to a wide scientific test. They argue, it shows that local knowledge, far from being snubbed or sidelined, can be a useful tool for combatting the climate threat.

Researchers interviewed 250 people living in 10 villages in Singalila National Park, in the Darjeeling Hills of India’s West Bengal state, and in eight villages in Ilam district of Nepal. They asked them about 18 possible indicators of climate change in the past decade. These interviews were then followed up with a looser-structured questionnaire in meetings at 10 other villages in the same area, the aim being to cross-check the results.

Three-quarters of the interviewees said they believed the weather had been getting warmer over the past 10 years, while two-thirds said the onset of summer and the monsoon had advanced. Nearly half the respondents thought there was less snow on the mountains than before and 70 per cent said water was less plentiful.

Roughly half said they believed that some plant species were budding earlier than before and that mosquitoes had appeared in villages where none had been seen before. At least a third said new crop pests or new weeds had emerged in places where they farmed.