Built on evidence.
Focused on one region.
The Hindu Kush Himalayan region is the most consequential environmental system in Asia. It supplies freshwater to 2 billion people across eight countries — Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan. It is also one of the most rapidly changing: glaciers are retreating at accelerating rates, extreme weather events are intensifying, and the downstream consequences for food security, energy infrastructure, and urban water supply are compounding annually.
The institutions responsible for managing these risks — national governments, development banks, multilateral agencies, infrastructure operators — operate in a data environment that is fragmented, siloed, and poorly integrated. National monitoring systems do not communicate across borders. Climate finance decisions are made on the basis of incomplete baselines. Disaster warnings reach populations too late, or not at all.
Dristhi Earth exists to change this. We aggregate, analyse, and translate environmental data from across the HKH system into structured intelligence products that decision-makers can act on. Our work is grounded in peer- reviewed literature, open earth observation data, and direct engagement with the institutional landscape of the region.
"The HKH region has exceptional scientific coverage and almost no structured intelligence infrastructure. That gap is the opportunity."
Pujan Adhikari — Founder, Dristhi Earth
Pujan Adhikari
FounderPujan Adhikari is a Nepali technologist and researcher with a First Class Honours degree in Computer Science from the University of Wolverhampton (2026). He is based in Preston, Lancashire, UK, and is pursuing doctoral research in AI applications for Himalayan disaster management.
His technical background spans machine learning, geospatial data analysis, and environmental informatics. His regional knowledge is grounded in direct familiarity with Nepal's institutional landscape — the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, and the academic networks that produce the primary research underpinning HKH environmental science.
Dristhi Earth is built on the conviction that the intelligence gap in the HKH region is not a technical problem but an institutional one — and that the right analytical infrastructure, positioned correctly within the institutional ecosystem, can close it.
Contact the FounderBuilt on evidence
Our intelligence products are grounded in peer-reviewed research, primary institutional data, and open earth observation platforms.
ICIMOD — the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development — provides the primary scientific framework for understanding HKH environmental systems. Its research programme covers glaciology, water resources, biodiversity, and disaster risk across all eight HKH countries. Dristhi Earth's analytical work is built on this foundation.
We draw on peer-reviewed literature published in journals including Nature Climate Change, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, Environmental Research Letters, and Global Environmental Change. Every quantitative claim in our intelligence products carries a primary source citation.
Earth observation data from ESA Copernicus, NASA SERVIR, Google Earth Engine, and Microsoft Planetary Computer forms the spatial backbone of our analysis. We do not produce proprietary data — we integrate, analyse, and contextualise data that already exists but is not being used effectively by the institutions that need it.
Confirmed funding flows in scope
- Green Climate Fund — HKH-focused adaptation programmes
- Asian Development Bank — South Asia climate resilience portfolio
- World Bank — Nepal and Bangladesh DRM financing
- FCDO — UK bilateral climate finance to HKH countries
- Swiss SDC — water and DRR programming in Nepal and Bhutan
- USAID — Bangladesh and Nepal climate programmes
- GEF — biodiversity and land degradation neutrality grants
- AIIB — infrastructure and climate resilience lending
- Adaptation Fund — community-level resilience projects
Three values
Evidence First
Every intelligence product we produce traces to primary sources. We do not extrapolate beyond the evidence, and we do not produce projections without transparent methodology. Our clients make consequential decisions on the basis of our analysis — accuracy is not negotiable.
Regional Depth
The Hindu Kush Himalayan region is not homogeneous. Environmental conditions, institutional capacity, and political contexts vary sharply across the eight countries and dozens of sub-basins within the system. We maintain country- level granularity as a baseline, not an aspiration.
Long-Term
Climate and environmental change operates on decadal timescales. Our intelligence framework is built accordingly — we track trends, institutional trajectories, and policy shifts over years, not news cycles. Our clients require durable analysis, and we provide it.
Discuss your requirements
We work with a limited number of institutional clients at any one time. Enquiries are reviewed within 48 hours.