JAMMU & KASHMIR

 

Jammu and Kashmir is a region administered by India as a union territory, and constituting the southern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947, and between India and China since 1962.The region of Jammu and Kashmir is separated by the Line of Control from the Pakistani-administered territories of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan in the west and north respectively. It lies to the north of the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab and to the west of Ladakh, which is also subject to the dispute as a part of Kashmir, and administered by India as a union territory

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Website

https://www.jk.gov.in

Jammu and Kashmir, union territory of India (until October 31, 2019, a state), located in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent in the vicinity of the Karakoram and westernmost Himalayan mountain ranges. The territory is part of the larger region of Kashmir, which has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since the partition of the subcontinent in 1947. Legislation passed in August 2019 set the stage for downgrading Jammu and Kashmir from statehood to union territory status and splitting off a part of it, known as the Ladakh region, into a separate union territory. The change went into effect on October 31 of that year, though several court cases affecting its status remained pending. The information that follows describes the former state of Jammu and Kashmir

Land

The vast majority of the state’s territory is mountainous, and the physiography is divided into seven zones that are closely associated with the structural components of the western Himalayas. From southwest to northeast those zones consist of the plains, the foothills, the Pir Panjal Range, the Vale of Kashmir, the Great Himalayas zone, the upper Indus River valley, and the Karakoram Range. The climate varies from alpine in the northeast to subtropical in the southwest. In the alpine area, average annual precipitation is about 3 inches (75 mm), but in the subtropical zone (around Jammu) rainfall amounts to about 45 inches (1,150 mm) per year. The entire region is prone to violent seismic activity, and light to moderate tremors are common. A strong earthquake centred in neighbouring Pakistani-administered Kashmir killed hundreds in Jammu and Kashmir state in 2005.

The Great Himalayas zone

Geologically complex and topographically immense, the Great Himalayas contain ranges with numerous peaks reaching elevations of 20,000 feet (6,100 metres) or higher, between which lie deeply entrenched remote valleys. The region was heavily glaciated during the Pleistocene Epoch, and remnant glaciers and snowfields are still present. The zone receives some rain from the southwest monsoon in the summer months—and the lower slopes are forested—but the mountains constitute a climatic divide, representing a transition from the monsoon climate of the Indian subcontinent to the dry continental climate of Central Asia.