For drylands with low inherent levels of biological productivity, coping with climate change presents particular problems. The world’s drylands cover over 40 % of the global terrestrial area and house more than 2 billion inhabitants MEA, (2005). The world’s poorest people live in these areas and they will be hit hardest by the adverse effects of climate change. The effects will manifest themselves not through increased temperatures per se but rather via changes in hydrological cycles characterised by both increased droughts and paradoxically, increased risks of flooding.

On the basis of a climate modelling study, Lal et al. predicted that during the winter months there will be 5–25% less rainfall and in the summer season the monsoon rainfall will be not only 10–15% more than the normal, but also quite variable and specially irregular in Central India.

The Shivalik landscape is extended from the Indus basin to the Brahmaputra with one gap of over 300 km from the Sapta Kosi to the Manas river. The Shivalik landscape, has been categorized under Indo-Gangetic plains and it has special significance in India's biogeography due to intermingling of taxa from the Indo-Malayan and Palaearctic regions.

Increased use of fresh water supplies in agricultural and non-agricultural activities in the past few decades has caused an alarming rate of groundwater depletion in many regions of the world. This threatens the sustenance of crop production and the ensuing food security.