Pride of India

From south to north the Himalayas are divided into different parallel ranges: And they are as follows:
Lower Himalayas with an average height of 3,700 m


Sub Himalayas with an average height of 900 to1, 200 m. It is the youngest of the three ranges. It is mainly made up of eroded matter from the rising Himalaya and the next is


The Great Himalayas, which is a single range and the oldest of the three ranges with a height above 6,000 m including Mount Everest, K2 and Kanchenjunga and nine of the 14 highest peaks in the world.


Himalayas is the origin of many glaciers and important rivers of Asia. The range offers different kinds of glaciers. Especially the Jammu and Kashmir glaciers and glaciers of Ladakh are of different types. But the most important is the Siachen glacier, which is the largest glacier outside the Polar Regions. Some of the important glaciers in the Jammu and Kashmir are as follows:

• Siachen Glacier


• Baltoro Glacier


• Biafo Glacier


• Nubra Glacier

• Hispur Glacier

Flora and Fauna

There is great variation in the Himalayan soils. The dark brown soils are well suited for growing fruit trees. The wet, deep, upland soils with high humus content are good for growing tea. Himalayan vegetation is based on altitude and rainfall and can be classified into four groups:

Tropical zone - Up to 1,000 - 1,200 m (3,280 to 3,940 ft) . Tropical ever green forests, Rose, chestnut, bamboo, alder, pine, laurel, and palm etc.

Subtropical zone - Up to 2,200 m (7,220 ft). Deciduous forest with sal, oak, and magnolia temperate forests of cedar, birch, hazel, maple, and spruce

Alpine zone - 2,200 to 2,700 m ( 7,220 to 8,860 ft ). With juniper, rhododendron, mosses, lichens etc
Several kinds of flowering plants are found from 2,700 to 3,600 m (8,860 - 11,800 ft). Alpine meadows are found up to 5,000 m (16,400 feet).

Elephants, bison, and rhinoceroses inhabit the forested lower slopes of the Outer Himalayas.
The snow leopard, brown bear, red panda, and
The black bear, languor monkey, clouded leopard, and goat antelope live in the foothills. Tibetan yak are living above the tree line--above 3,050 m (10,000 ft).
Endangered animal species, such as the rhinoceros, musk deer, and Kashmir stag, or hangul are now under protection.
There are catfish in most Himalayan streams, and butterflies are extremely varied and beautiful.

Himalayas divided politically

Possibly the most important divisions of the Himalayas these days are the ones based on political boundaries. For anyone exploring the mountains, knowledge of the political boundaries is very important nowadays because most of the Himalayas lie very close to sensitive international border regions, many of which are disputed territories. Special permission is often required to visit certain areas close to the borders which are under military control due to their strategic importance. Based on international political boundaries, the Himalayas are divided into

Indian Himalayas The Himalayas run through the entire northern part of India, covering five states of India. The term "Himalaya" - a Sanskrit word meaning "the Abode of Snow" - was coined by the ancient Indian pilgrims who have travelled in these mountains since time immemorial. The Hindu pilgrim routes, the low valleys that abruptly rise up in high mountain ranges, the lovely trekking routes, densely forested areas lying just a mountain range away from barren cold deserts, and the lovely people of the mountains - these are some of the reasons why people have been so fascinated by the Indian Himalayas.


Nepal HimalayasContaining nine of the world's fourteen highest peaks, Nepal is a true Himalayan kingdom. The Himalayas cover three fourths of the land in Nepal. It is home to some of the highest, rugged, remote and most difficult terrain in the world. The world's highest mountain peak Mountt Everest, other high peaks like Lhotse, Nuptse, Annapurna, Dhaulagiri, Manaslu and the presence of some very beautiful trekking routes attract hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world to this lovely Himalayan destination.


Tibetan HimalayasThe Tibetan plateau lies beyond the main Himalayan range and is rightly given the term Transhimalaya. Also called Roof of the World, Tibet is the highest plateau in the world. Home to Buddism and the Lamas, Tibet has a powerful cultural tradition that has influenced many other parts of the Himalayas. Tibet also contains a large number of lakes from which rise some of the largest rivers of the Himalaya. Currently forming an autonomous region in China, Tibet has a long history of political trouble with many activists in the region demanding independence.

The Formation of the Himalayas

The Himalayas are known to be youngfold mountains. Young, because these have been formed relatively recently in the earth's history, compared to older mountain ranges like the Aravallis in India, and the Appalachian in the USA. They are known as fold mountains because the mountains extend for 2500 km in length in a series of parallel ridges or folds.

Crux of the Himalayan geology.

The accepted theory about the formation of the Himalayas started to take shape in the year 1912 when German meteorologist Alfred Wegener developed his Theory of Continental Drift. According to Wegener, the earth was composed of several giant plates called tectonic plates. On these plates lie the continents and the oceans of the earth. The continents were said to have formed a single mass at one point in time. From this single mass, today's continents have "drifted" apart from each other over a period of millions of years.

We pick up the story about 250 million years ago. During this time, all the earth's land was a single super continent called Pangea, which was surrounded by a large ocean.
The continents, 180 Million years ago.

Around 200 million years ago (also known as the Middle Permian Period) , an extensive sea stretched along the latitudinal area presently occupied by the Himalayas. This sea was named the Tethys. Around this period, the super continent Pangea began to gradually split into different land masses and move apart in different directions.

As a result, rivers from both the northern Eurasian land mass (called Angara) and the southern Indian land mass (called Gondwana) started depositing large amounts of sediments into the shallow sea that was the Tethys. There were marine animals called ammonites living in the sea at the time. The two land masses, the Eurasian and the Indian sub-continent, moved closer and closer. Indian plate was moving north about at the rate of about 15 cm per year (6 inches per year).

The initial mountain building process started about seventy million years ago (or the Upper Cretaceous period) when the two land masses (or plates) began to collide with each other. As a result, the already shallow seabed rapidly folded folded and was raised into longitudinal ridges and valleys.
The continents, 65 Million years ago.

Soon afterwards, about 65 million years ago (Upper Eocene Period), came the second phase of mountain building. The bed of the Tethys started rising again. The sea retreated, and the sea bed was elevated into high mountain ranges.

Later, about 25 million years ago (Middle Miocene Period) came another mountain building period which led to the formation of the low Shivalik ranges. After this, periodic mountain building phases occurred as the Indian plate pushed against the Eurasian plates which led to the Himalayan ranges rising further. The last major phase occurred 600,000 years ago.
The continents, today.

Although the phase of major upheaval of the Himalayas has passed, the Himalayas are still rising, albeit at a much slower rate. The Indian plate is continuously moving north at the rate of about 2 cms every year. Because of this reason the Himalayas are rising at the rate of about 5 millimeter per year. This means that the Himalayas are still geologically active and structurally unstable. For this reason, earthquakes are a frequent occurrence in the entire Himalayan region.

It has to be understood that it is impossible to detect the movement of the plates and uplifting of the Himalayas by casual observation. However, a modern technology called Global Positioning System (GPS) has made it possible to measure even such a slow movement of the plates.

Trekking in Himalayas

The Himalayas, over the centuries, have attracted trekkers, mountaineers, pilgrims and ascetics. Since time immemorial its rugged heights crowned with snow and draped in vast glaciers has lured man to pit his courage and ingenuity against its dangerous challenge.
Since ancient times, ascetics have climbed into these inhospitable heights in search of peace. In doing so, they have established places of pilgrimage that have become more than household names since their fame has spread to all parts of the world. Names like Kailash Mansarovar, in Tibet, Thyang Boche in Nepal, and of course Badrinath, Kedarnath, Yamunotri, Gangotri of Uttarakhand. Then there is Amarnath in Kashmir and Hemis in Ladakh.
Trekking in the Himalayas is now quite enjoyable and has become comparatively easy with the development of lightweight equipment and clothing with booming tourist infrastructure. There are difficult treks as well as easy treks, long and short treks. Vehicles, helicopters and aircrafts are also available to explore the Himalayas according to one's resources, taste and leisure time. But you still find people in remote mountain villages who maintain the age old traditions and have not changed for generations. There is much that is new and interesting in the Himalayan villages.

Exploring Himalayas