Himalayan Peaks and Their Ranges

The Himalayas are not one wall of rock. They are a belt of ranges that run side by side.

The belt is about 2,400 km long in the Class 9 textbook. The Class 11 textbook gives about 2,500 km for the Great Himalayan range. It is 400 km wide in Kashmir and 150 km wide in Arunachal Pradesh.

1.1 How are the ranges arranged?

The Class 9 textbook says the Himalaya has three parallel ranges. A number of valleys lie between them. From north to south, they are:

• Himadri (Great or Inner Himalaya): the most continuous range. It has the loftiest peaks, with an average height of 6,000 m.
• Himachal (Lesser Himalaya): the middle range. Its altitude is 3,700 to 4,500 m. It is about 50 km wide.
• Shivalik (Shiwaliks): the outer-most range. Its altitude is 900 to 1,100 m. It is 10 to 50 km wide.

All the famous high peaks sit in the Himadri. The Shivalik is the lowest of the three and lies closest to the plains.

1.2 What is a dun, and why does it matter?

A dun is a long valley that lies between the Lesser Himalaya and the Shiwaliks. The Class 9 book names Dehra Dun, Kotli Dun and Patli Dun.

Dehra Dun is the largest dun. It is about 35 to 45 km long and 22 to 25 km wide.

1.3 How did the Himalayas form?

The Indian plate moved north and collided with the Eurasian plate. The USGS says the Himalaya began to form 40 to 50 million years ago.

That time falls in the Cenozoic Era.

The western Himalaya, in Kashmir and Ladakh, is a set of ranges. The Class 11 textbook names the Karakoram, Ladakh, Zaskar and Pir Panjal.

2.1 In what order do the western ranges run?

By position, the order from south to north is Pir Panjal, Zaskar, Ladakh and then Karakoram. The Class 11 textbook lists them in the reverse order, as Karakoram, Ladakh, Zaskar and Pir Panjal. It does not state the south-to-north order itself. A Uttarakhand Open University geography course gives the same south-to-north order.

The valley of Kashmir lies between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal. The cold desert of the north-east lies between the Great Himalayas and the Karakoram. The Class 11 textbook also names the passes. Zoji La is on the Great Himalayas, Banihal is on the Pir Panjal and Photu La is on the Zaskar.

The Class 9 textbook puts the Pir Panjal in the Himachal, or Lesser Himalaya, as its longest range. Class 11 lists it among the western ranges of Kashmir. Both are correct. The two books group the ranges in different ways.

2.2 Why is the Karakoram special?

The Karakoram holds K2 and some of the longest glaciers of South Asia, such as the Baltoro and the Siachen. WorldAtlas calls it the most heavily glaciated part of the world outside the polar regions.

Its glaciers have held steady or even grown while most others shrink. Scientists call this the Karakoram anomaly. NSIDC says winter snow, carried by westerly winds, is a likely contributing reason.

NSIDC adds a warning. The anomaly may not last as the climate warms.

K2 is the highest peak of the Karakoram Range. At 8,611 m, it is the second-highest mountain in the world.

3.1 Where is K2, and who first climbed it?

Britannica says K2 lies partly in a Chinese-administered enclave of the Kashmir region within Xinjiang, China. It lies partly in the Gilgit-Baltistan part of Kashmir, which Pakistan administers.

The first ascent was on 31 July 1954. Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli of an Italian expedition reached the top.

3.2 Why is K2 called the Savage Mountain?

National Geographic quotes the climber George Bell calling K2 “a savage mountain that tries to kill you”. Alpinist says Charles Houston and Bob Bates later wrote a book called “Savage Mountain”.

The climb is very hard and the weather is harsh.

Kangchenjunga is the third-highest mountain in the world. Britannica gives its height as 8,586 m. It stands on the border between Sikkim and Nepal.

4.1 Why is it called India’s highest peak?

The Government of Sikkim calls it “the highest peak in India”.

The Class 9 textbook lists a height of 8,598 m in its table. Newer references use 8,586 m. Use 8,586 m in answers.

4.2 What does the name mean, and who climbed it first?

In Sikkim, the name is read as “Five Treasuries of the Great Snow”. In 1955, a British party led by Charles Evans made the first ascent.

The 1955 team stopped a few yards below the summit. This was out of respect for the religious beliefs of the Sikkimese.

Nanda Devi is 7,817 m high. Some sources, including SummitPost and CPREEC, give 7,816 m. It is the second-highest peak in India, after Kangchenjunga. It is in Uttarakhand.

5.1 Which Himalaya is it part of?

Britannica places Nanda Devi in the Kumaun Himalayas. The Class 9 textbook says the part between the Satluj and Kali rivers is the Kumaon Himalayas.

A Himalayan Journal article (vol. 9, about the 1936 climb) and the CPREEC eco-heritage site place it in Garhwal. The UPSC answer key gives Kumaon, so this article follows the key.

5.2 What is the story of its first climb and protection?

Bill Tilman and Noel Odell made the first ascent in 1936. UNESCO says mountaineering was banned in 1983. The Nanda Devi National Park became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988.

5.3 What was the 1965 device on Nanda Devi?

In 1978, Prime Minister Morarji Desai told the Lok Sabha about a joint plan with the United States. A remote sensing device with a nuclear power-pack was to be placed near the summit.

The Lok Sabha statement gives no year for the blizzard. It says the plan started in 1964 and the site was searched in the summer of 1966. Indiablooms, citing the New York Times, dates the climb to September 1965 and the blizzard to mid-October. So 1965 rests on that report alone. A blizzard stopped the party. The power-pack was left in a cache. The next spring, a big avalanche had swept the site. The device was never found.

Indiablooms, citing the New York Times, says the United States intelligence agency CIA devised the plan. The Lok Sabha statement does not name the CIA.

5.4 Did the 1965 device cause the 2021 Chamoli disaster?

No source links them. On 7 February 2021, a rock and ice avalanche fell from the flank of Ronti peak. An ESA satellite study ruled out a glacial-lake burst. More than 200 people died.

Treat the link as a rumour.

UPSC gave three pairs in 2022. Only one was right.

6.1 Which pair is correct, and why?

• Namcha Barwa and the Garhwal Himalaya: wrong. Namcha Barwa is at the eastern end of the Himalaya. It is in Tibet, near the bend of the Yarlung Tsangpo and the Brahmaputra gorge.
• Nanda Devi and the Kumaon Himalaya: right.
• Nokrek and the Sikkim Himalaya: wrong. Nokrek is the highest peak of the Nokrek reserve area in the Garo Hills of Meghalaya, at 1,412 m.

6.2 What is the exam habit to build?

Match each peak to its region by locating it on the map. Do not match by famous name alone. Ask three questions. Is it in the Himalaya at all? Is it at the east or the west end? Is it in India?

The Siachen Glacier lies in the Karakoram. Britannica gives its length as about 75 km. It is the second-longest glacier outside the polar regions.

7.1 Why is Siachen called the world’s highest battlefield?

India launched Operation Meghdoot on 13 April 1984. PIB says its aim was to secure the heights dominating Northern Ladakh. PIB calls it the highest battlefield in the world. Britannica places the Siachen Glacier beside the Saltoro Ridge.

An opinion piece in Fair Observer says India holds three passes of the Saltoro Ridge. They are Sia La, Bilafond La and Gyong La. This is the writer’s view, not an official statement.

7.2 How many soldiers has India lost there?

Official figures come from replies in the Lok Sabha. The count was 846 in August 2012. By December 2015, it was 869.

Scroll reports that deaths in 2011 to 2015 all came from avalanches and the cold, not enemy fire. Some websites claim 2,700 deaths, with 97% from weather.

The Valley of Flowers lies in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand. It is known for its alpine flowers. The Key Biodiversity Areas factsheet gives the altitude range of the protected site as 3,200 m to 6,590 m.

8.1 How did the world learn of it?

The valley was brought to world notice in 1931. The mountaineer Frank Smythe found it, says The Caravan. Outlook Traveller says he came to it after climbing Kamet.

8.2 How is it linked to Nanda Devi?

The Key Biodiversity Areas factsheet says the government notified its 8,750 ha area as a National Park in 1982. In 2005, UNESCO added it to the Nanda Devi World Heritage Site. The site’s original listing dates from 1988. Its name is now “Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks”.

What did UPSC ask in 2022?

UPSC CSP 2022 Q25 gave three peak-and-range pairs. They were Namcha Barwa with the Garhwal Himalaya, Nanda Devi with the Kumaon Himalaya, and Nokrek with the Sikkim Himalaya.

Only the second pair is correct. The official answer is “2 only”.

Namcha Barwa lies at the far eastern end of the Himalaya. Nokrek is in the Garo Hills of Meghalaya. Section 6 explains both.