The Northern
Mountains and the Northern Plains of India
Here we can find the
information about the Northern Mountains and the Northern plains of India.
THE GREAT NORTHERN MOUNTAINS
The Great Northern Mountains
are stretched like a wall across the north of the Indian subcontinent. The
Northern Mountains consist of the Trans-Himalayan
Ranges and the Himalayan
Ranges. (A range is a continuous line of mountains.)
The Trans-Himalayan
Ranges
The Trans-Himalayan Ranges are
a series of towering mountain chains that originate from the Pamir Knot. The
Pamir, a plateau, is also known as the ‘roof of the world’. These ranges lie to
the north of the Himalayas and have an average height of 6000m. Of the various
Trans-Himalayan Ranges that radiate out of the Pamir Knot, the ones that lie in
India are the Karakoram Range, the Ladakh Range and the Zaskar Range.
The Karakoram is the northernmost mountain range of
India. The highest peak of this range is Mt K2 or Godwin-Austin
(8611m) (this region now lies in POK or Pakistan Occupied Kashmir). The Ladakh and Zaskar Ranges cut across
Jammu and Kashmir from the north-west to the south-east.
The Himalayan Ranges
The word Himalaya means ‘the abode of snow’ in Sanskrit. The Himalayas
consist of three great ranges that run parallel to each other. These ranges
extend from west to east (from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh) covering
2500km in length. They are broader in the west (400 km) and narrow down to the
east (150 km).
The three parallel ranges of
the Himalayans are the Himadri, the Himachal and the Shiwalik.
HIMADRI
The northernmost range of the
Himalayas is called Himadri.
It is also known as the Greater
Himalayas or the Inner
Himalayas. The average altitude of this range is 6000 m. It houses some
of the highest peaks of the world. Some of them are the Everest (8848 m),
Kanchenjunga (8586 m), Makalu (8481 m), Dhaulagiri (8172 m), Nanga Parbat (8126
m), Annapurna (8078 m), Nanda Devi (7817 m).
Mt Everest is the highest peak in the world and is located in
Nepal. Of the other peaks listed above, Kanchenjunga (bordering Nepal) and
Nanda Devi are in India. The others are in Nepal. Kanchenjunga is the highest
peak in India.
HIMACHAL
The range that lies to the
south of Himadri and north of Shiwalik is called Himachal. It is also called the Middle Himalayas or Lesser Himalayas. Many hill
stations like Shimla, Kullu, Manali, Mussoorie, Nainital and Darjeeling are in
this region.
SHIWALIK
Shiwalik is the southernmost
range of the Himalayas. It is also known as the Outer Himalayas. This part of the Himalayas is
the youngest fold. It is made of unconsolidated (loose) deposits and is,
therefore, prone to earthquakes and landslides. There are flat valleys between
the Himachal and Shiwalik ranges called ‘duns’, for example, Dehra Dun, Patli Dun, etc.
As eastward extension of the
Himalayas into the north-east of India forms the Purvanchal. The Purvanchal consist of six small
ranges. They are the Garo, Khasi and Jaintia Hills, Patkai Bum, the Naga Hills
and the Mizo Hills.
THE NORTHERN PLAINS
The fertile Northern Plains lie between
the Himalayas in the North and the peninsular plateau in the South. This is one
of the most extensive plains 2500 km. It is drained by mainly three rivers
systems, the Ganga, the Indus and the Brahmaputra.
The plains are built up of
rich alluvial deposits. Alluvial deposits are fine sand, silt clay brought down
by the rivers and deposited in the basins.
An area drained by a river
system is called a drainage
basin or a river
basin. A river system consists of a main river and its various
tributaries and distributaries. A tributary is a stream or river. A distributary is a branch of a river that flows
away from the main stream and does not rejoin it.
On the basis of drainage
basins, we can divide the Northern Plains into three major regions – the Indus
Basin, the Ganga Basin and the Brahmaputra Basin.
The Indus Basin is drained by the river Indus and
its tributaries (Jhelum, Chenab, Beas, Ravi and Satluj). The Indus originates
near Lake Manasarovar and drains Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and
Punjab.
The Ganga basin is drained by the river Ganga and
its tributaries and distributaries. The Ganga originates in Gangotri in the
Himalayas, and drains most of the Northern Plains. The northern tributaries of
the Ganga are the Ghagra, Gandak, Gomti and Kosi. The Yamuna is the main
southern tributary of the Ganga. The other southern tributaries are Betwa, Ken,
Sindh and Son. The major distributary of the Ganga is the river Hugli.
The Brahmaputra Basin is drained by the river
Brahmaputra and its tributaries. The Brahmaputra also originates near Lake
Manasarovar in Tibet and flows through three countries – China, India and
Bangladesh. In India it drains the states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. This
river is known as Tsangpo
in China. In Bangladesh, it is joined by the Ganga (known here as Padma), and
flows through Bangladesh as Jamuna.
The Ganga and Brahmaputra together
form the world’s largest delta, called the Ganga Delta. The world’s largest
mangrove forest, the Sundarbans,
is found on the Ganga Delta. Most of the Sundarbans lies in Bangladesh.
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