Karewas of Kashmir

A karewa is a raised, flat-topped terrace in the Kashmir Valley. It looks like a low plateau. Each one runs for several kilometres. Locally, karewas are also called wudar.

What are karewas made of?

Karewas are made of sediment laid down in an old lake. Sediment means loose mud, clay, sand and gravel. Geologists call lake-laid sediment lacustrine. The word simply means “of a lake”.

The layers are mostly mudstone, sandstone and gravel. Thin bands of lignite, a soft brown coal, also occur.

What do geologists call these layers?

Together, the layers are called the Karewa Group. They sit in a basin between two mountain ranges. A thin cap of wind-blown dust, called loess, often lies on top.

Why does a karewa have a flat top?

The flat top is the old lake floor. Rivers and streams later cut into it. So the terraces now stand above the valley floor, with steep sides.

The Kashmir basin is a long bowl between mountains. It is about 140 km long and up to 60 km wide. It runs from north-west to south-east.

Which mountains surround the basin?

The Great Himalayan Range lies to the north-east. The Pir Panjal Range lies to the south-west. Both belong to the Himalayan mountain system.

What blocked the old rivers?

The Pir Panjal Range slowly rose as the Himalaya grew. It blocked the old drainage of the valley. Water collected behind it and formed a large lake. Geologists call it Karewa Lake.

When did the lake start filling up?

Mud and sand began to collect in the basin about 4 million years ago. The mountains rose in bursts while it filled. Major uplift came between 3 and 3.5, and at 2.7, 2.1 and 1.7 million years ago.

The Pir Panjal went through another fast rise about 400,000 years ago. A gravel bed marks this event. The rise tilted the lower layers and drained the big lake.

Which way did the water leave?

The water is thought to have left through the Baramulla Gorge. Rivers still leave the basin by the same path today. The Jhelum river drained the lake. It still runs through the valley, parallel to the Pir Panjal.

Is any of the old lake left?

Yes, but only small pieces. Dal Lake, Manasbal Lake and Wular Lake remain in the basin. They are tiny remnants of the much larger old lake.

How did the terraces appear?

Once the water had gone, rivers began cutting down into the soft layers. This exposed the old lake beds in valleys and gullies. The uncut parts were left standing as flat-topped karewas.

The karewas are Plio-Pleistocene in age. This means they span the end of the Pliocene and much of the Pleistocene. Studies date them from the lower Pliocene to the middle Pleistocene.

Why is “Pleistocene only” not quite right?

Many notes say karewas formed in the Pleistocene, which began about 2.6 million years ago. But the filling began earlier, by about 4 million years ago. So the oldest layers are Pliocene.

What are the Lower and Upper Karewas?

Geologists split the group into two parts.

• Lower Karewa: the thicker, older part. It is about 1,000 m to 1,300 m thick.
• Upper Karewa: the thinner, younger part. It is about 100 m thick.

A tilted break in the layers, called an angular unconformity, separates the two. One well-known lower section is at Hirpur.

What lies on top?

A cap of loess, or wind-blown dust, covers many karewas. It is about 25 m thick in places. The loess began to settle about 200,000 years ago. Today loess covers almost 500 sq km of the valley.

Karewas lie across the Kashmir Valley. They are best known along the Pir Panjal side, which borders the valley on the south-west.

Which sections do geologists study?

• Kilar: about 60 km south-west of Srinagar, on the Pir Panjal side.
• Sombur: about 18 km south-east of Srinagar, on the Himalayan side.
• Burzahom: about 12 km north-east of Srinagar, on the Himalayan side.

The Sombur and Burzahom sections belong to the Upper Karewa.

Which districts have karewas?

Pulwama, Budgam and Baramulla districts all have large karewas. Srinagar airport is built on the Damodar karewa in Budgam. Pampore is the hub of saffron farming.

Who owns the karewas?

Most karewa patches belong to people who farm them. Some belong to the government. Locals call these kahcharai, and use them for grazing.

Karewa soils are deep and fertile. They suit saffron, almonds, apples and other cash crops. They are among the most fertile spots in the valley.

What makes Kashmir saffron special?

Kashmir saffron got a Geographical Indication (GI) certificate in 2020. A GI tag shows that a product’s quality is tied to its place of origin.

Its stigma is longer and thicker than other kinds. It has a natural deep-red colour and a strong aroma. It tastes bitter and is processed without chemicals.

Kashmir saffron is grown at about 1,600 metres. It is said to be the only saffron grown at that height.

How is the crop being revived?

The National Mission on Saffron backs the crop. Under it, the Centre approved a project worth Rs 411 crore. It proposed to revive 3,715 hectares of saffron land. By 2020, 2,500 hectares had been revived.

What new threat do saffron fields face?

Porcupines now damage saffron fields in Pampore. They burrow into fields and eat saffron corms, the bulbs that grow the flower. The issue reached the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, as reported on 4 April 2026.

The government plans mesh barriers, repellents, night patrols and live-trapping cages. A man-animal conflict control room is set up at Khrew in Pulwama.

Karewas keep a long record of past life. Each layer is like a page in a history book.

Which animals have been found?

Early collectors listed several kinds of large mammals from the karewas. They include cattle (Bos), pigs (Sus), cats (Felis), elephants (Elephas), horses (Equus) and rhinoceros. Sivatherium is on the list too.

When did these animals live?

Horses and deer appear about 2 million years ago. Elephants and dogs (Canis) appear only in the Brunhes epoch. Tiny rodents called voles mark the start of the Pleistocene in these layers.

What was the land like?

The fossils point to open grassland mixed with wooded grassland. Bushes and some woods also grew. The setting was mostly a lake. Glacier streams and wind also brought in material.

What happened to the climate?

Lake mud shows three spells when the water level fell. These are probably linked to the start of the Ice Age glaciations. Drier air followed, and wind then spread the loess.

Karewa soil is soft and easy to dig. Builders in the valley have few other easy sources of earth. So karewas are dug for clay and filling.

Which projects cut into karewas?

• Rail line: between 1995 and 2005, karewas in Pulwama, Budgam and Baramulla were razed. The clay went into the 125-km Qazigund-Baramulla rail line.
• Airport: Srinagar airport sits on the Damodar karewa.
• Ring road: an order of 6 December 2021 allowed digging near Pattan. The clay was for the 58-km Srinagar ring road.

Does the law protect karewas?

Residents point to the Jammu and Kashmir Land Revenue Act, 1996. They say it bars changing the shape of a karewa. They argue that clay mining breaks this rule.

How does mining harm the rivers?

Razing of karewas sends silt into the Jhelum. Its 42-km flood spill channel was built in the 1920s. Its capacity fell from 481,440 to 169,920 litres per second. Srinagar flooded badly in 2014.

What has the green court said?

The National Green Tribunal took up illegal karewa mining in an order dated 6 February 2026. It noted digging over more than 65 acres at Zadoora in Pulwama. It also noted about 60 acres at Rangeen Kultreh in Budgam.

A pollution control committee report used satellite images. It put the mined area at Zadoora at about 42.9 hectares, as of 6 April 2025.

What are the traps?

1. Origin. Karewas are lake deposits. They are not river sand or glacier rock.
2. Age. Exams often say “Pleistocene”. The fuller answer is Plio-Pleistocene.
3. Crops. Saffron, almond and walnut fit the dry terraces. Ling nut is a water crop, so it does not.
4. Drainage. The lake drained through the Baramulla Gorge. The Jhelum drained the last of it.
5. Lakes left behind. Dal, Manasbal and Wular.

Has this come up in the exam?

The answer is (c) 3. The key treats all three statements as correct. Note that the layers began in the Pliocene. The key still accepts the word “Pleistocene”.

The answer is (d) Ling nut. It is a water crop, not a terrace crop.