The biggest reason why most people prefer to live near the rivers in this region is water. A lot of the villages up in the mountains do not have running water and you have to hike a few kilometers down the valley to get water from hand-pumps and small streams. That was the case when I last visited my grandparent's village in Uttarakhand. Even my hometown which is one of the largest towns in the region has water problems. It gets worse the higher you go in the Himalayas.
Landslides are also a major factor as the mountains are extremely fragile. I've witnessed several such small landslides during my trips that often block the small mountain roads. They are very common.
There is pretty much no usable agricultural land and most villages rely on money from people working outside the region or small scale cattle domestication. Upper Himalayas is a rough terrain and so not many people live there. Living closer to the rivers is much better. Even better is living closer to the major roads that often are closer to the rivers.
Things are slowly and steadily improving these days. The regulations are also being more strictly enforced. Though I'm quite concerned that many similar disasters will happen in the future due to climate change. :/
Yes, maybe civilizations of social biological species that have a relativity low replication rate like us may find contentment with colonizing only a few close star systems. Create a few dense population clusters like our current cities on select planets and space platforms and leave the rest to 'nature'. We already have a declining population growth rate of 1.1 as more people are opting out of starting a family and children due to technological advances and better global socioeconomic conditions. And maybe our current power fantasies of galactic colonization may seem trivial and 'ignorant' to our future generations. One could also call this a great filter. The possibilities are endless and allows one to enjoy it as a bunch of inconsequential thought experiments. Actual problems that require solutions are usually not fun to think about.......
It's hard to be nice when you feel that the others are exploiting you in some way. Even if you can empathize with their situation, sometimes you cannot sympathize enough to put their well being over your own (mainly in cases where the absolute difference between the relative importance of their needs to your own, in your opinion as per your beliefs, is small).
Well, I'm an antisocial shut-in so maybe this is a fringe opinion to have for our techno-monkey tribes. :))
Landslides are also a major factor as the mountains are extremely fragile. I've witnessed several such small landslides during my trips that often block the small mountain roads. They are very common.
There is pretty much no usable agricultural land and most villages rely on money from people working outside the region or small scale cattle domestication. Upper Himalayas is a rough terrain and so not many people live there. Living closer to the rivers is much better. Even better is living closer to the major roads that often are closer to the rivers.
Things are slowly and steadily improving these days. The regulations are also being more strictly enforced. Though I'm quite concerned that many similar disasters will happen in the future due to climate change. :/