THE NORTHERN MOUNTAINS AND THE NORTHERN PLAINS OF INDIA

 

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.