INDIAN GEOGRAPHY (Subjective) eBOOK
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Physical Divisions
Earthquakes
River System
Climate
Forest
Soils
Agriculture
Mineral Resources
Transport Communication and Trade
Geographical Epithets of India
Indian Town
Wind Energy Power Plants
Geothermal Fields
Tidal, Wave and Solar Energy Plants
Thermal Plants
Famous Tourist Sites
Major Sanctuaries
National Parks
National Wildlife Conservation Projects
Biosphere Reserves
Tiger Reserves
Elephant Reserves
Ramsar Sites
Critically Endangered Animal Species
THE NORTHERN MOUNTAINS
The northern mountains were formed by the ongoing tectonic collision of the Indian and
Eurasian plates.
It contains of the Himalayas, Hindu Kush, and Patkai ranges which marks the northern
Indian subcontinent.
These mountains are the boundary between two of the Earth's great ecozones: the temperate
Palearctic that covers most of Eurasia and the tropical and subtropical Indomalaya ecozone which includes the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and Indonesia.
It is divided into three groups. These are the Himalayas, the Trans Himalayas and the
Puranchal hills.
Important Features of Mountains
Pass is a natural gap or a route between a ridges, hill.
Range is the large landmass consisting of mountains, ridges and peaks.
Peak is the highest point or tip of a mountain range.
Valley is a depression or a flat land between two elevated areas.
Dun is the longitudinal valleys existing between Himachal and Shiwaliks.
The Himalayas and its Origin
The Himalayas is the highest and one of the youngest mountain ranges in the world. It acts as
natural barrier.
The extreme cold, snow and rugged topography discourage the neighbors to enter India
through Himalayas.
They run from west-east direction from Indus to Brahmaputra along the northern boundary of India covering a distance of 2500 km. Their width varies from 400 in the west and 150 km in the East.
Its origin can be traced in the Jurassic Era, which is about 80 million years ago.
This mountain ranges are mostly formed of sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, it has been
subjected to intense folding and faulting.
The Geosynclinal Origin has been supported by Argand, Kober and Suess.
The Plate Tectonic Origin of the Himalayas was put forward by W.J. Morgan in 1967.
The Himalayas may be divided into three parallel ranges:
1. Greater Himalayas or Himadari
2. Lesser Himalayas or Himachal
3. Outer Himalayas or Siwaliks.
The Greater Himalayas or Himadari
It comprises of the northern most ranges and peaks.
It has an average height of 6000 metres and width lies between 120 to 190 Km.
It is the most continuous range. It is snow bound and many glaciers descend from this range.
It has high peaks like Mt. Everest, Kanchenjunga, Makalu, Dhaulagiri, Nanga Parbat etc. having a height of more than 8000 metres.
Mt. Everest (8848 m) is the highest peak of the world and Kanchenjunga is the highest peak of Himalaya in India.
High Mountain passes also exist in this range, namely, Bara Lacha-La, Shipki-La, Nathu-La, Zoji-La, Bomidi-La etc.
The Ganga and Yamuna rivers originates from this Himalayas.
The Lesser Himalayas or Himachal
The altitude of this range lies between 1000 and 4500 metres and the average width is 50 km.
The Prominent ranges in this are Pir Panjal, Dhaula Dhar and Mahabharata ranges.
It compresses of many famous hill stations like Shimla, Dalhousie Darjeeling, Chakrata, Mussoorie, Nanital etc.
It also comprises of famous valleys like Kashmir, Kullu, Kangra etc.
The Outer Himalayas or the Siwaliks
It is the outer most range of the Himalayas.
The altitude varies between 900 to 1100 meters and the width lies between 10 to 50 km.
They have low hills like Jammu Hills, etc.
The valleys lying between Siwalik and Lesser Himalayas (Himachal) are called ‘Duns’ like Dehra Dun, Kotli Dun and Patli Dun.
The Trans-Himalayan ranges
It extends north of greater Himalaya and parallel to it is called Zaskar Range. North of Zaskar range lies Ladakh range. The Indus River flows between Zaskar and Ladakh range.
The Karakoram range lie extreme north of the country. K2 is the second highest peak of the world.
The Purvanchal hills
It comprises Mishami, Patkoi, Naga, Mizo hills which are located in eastern side. The Meghalaya plateau is also part of these hills which includes the hills of Garo, Khasi and Jaintia.
The Significance of the Himalayas
The Himalayas comprise the most dominating geographical feature of India. The Himalayas are the body and soul of India.
The following few points are the significance of the Himalayan Mountains to India.
Climatic Influence
By virtue of their high altitude, length and direction, they effectively intercept the summer monsoons coming from the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea and cause precipitation in the form of rain or snow.
Besides, they prevent the cold continental air masses of central Asia from entering into India.
According to the latest meteorological studies, the Himalayas are responsible for splitting the jet stream into two branches and these in turn play an extremely important role in bring monsoons in India.
Defence
The Himalayas have been protecting India from outside invaders since the early times thus serving as a defence barrier. But the Chinese aggression on India in October, 1962 has reduced the defence significance of the Himalayas to a considerable extent.
In spite of advancement in modem warfare technology, the defence significance of the Himalayas cannot be ignored altogether.
Source of Rivers
Almost all the great rivers of India have their sources in the Himalayan ranges.
Abundant rainfall and vast snow-fields as well as large glaciers are the feeding grounds of the mighty rivers of India. Snow melt in summer provides water to these rivers even during dry season and these areperennial rivers.
The Himalayan Rivers, along with hundreds of their tributaries, form the very basis of life in the whole of north India.
Fertile Soil
The great rivers and their tributaries carry enormous quantities of alluvium while descending from the Himalayas. This is deposited in the Great Plain of North India in the form of fertile soil, making the plain one of the most fertile lands of the world.
It has been estimated that the Ganga and the Indus carry 19 and 10 lakh tonnes of silt, per day respectively and the silt carried by the Brahmaputra is even more.
Hydroelectricity
The Himalayan region offers several sites which can be used for producing hydroelectricity.
There are natural waterfalls at certain places while dams can be constructed across rivers at some other places.
Forest Wealth
The Himalayan ranges has vegetal cover from the tropical to the Alpine, in their altitude.
The Himalayan forests provide fuel wood and a large variety of raw materials for forest based industries.
Many medicinal plants grow in the Himalayan region.
Agriculture
The Himalayas do not offer extensive flat lands for agriculture but some of the slopes are terraced for cultivation. Rice is the main crop on the terraced slopes.
The other crops are wheat, maize, potatoes, tobacco and ginger.
Tea is a unique crop which can be grown on the hill slopes only.
A wide variety of fruits such as apples, pears, grapes, mulberry, walnut, cherries, peaches, apricot, etc. are also grown in the Himalayan region.
Tourism
By virtue of their scenic beauty and healthy environment, the Himalayan ranges have developed a large number of tourist spots.
Srinagar, Dalhousie, Dharamshala, Chamba, Shimla, Kulu, Manali, Mussoorie, Nainital, Ranikhet, Almora, Darjeeling, Mirik, Gangtok, etc. are important tourist centres in the Himalayas.
Pilgrimage
The Himalayas are proud of being studded with sanctified shrines which are considered to be the abodes of the Gods.
Large number of pilgrims trek through difficult terrain to pay their reverence to these sacred shrines.
Kailas, Amarnath, Badrinath, Kedamath, Vaishnu Devi, Jwalaji, Uttarkashi, Gangotri, Yamunotri, etc. are important places of pilgrimage.
Minerals
There are vast potentialities of mineral oil in the tertiary rocks.
Coal is found in Kashmir.
Copper, lead, zinc, nickel, cobalt, antimony, tungsten, gold, silver, limestone, semi precious and precious stones, gypsum and magnesite are known to occur at more than 100 localities in the Himalayas.
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