Regional or Longitudinal Division of the Himalayas

In the previous article you learned about the geographical division of the Himalayas. In this article you’re going to learn about the regional or longitudinal division of the Himalayas.

Regionally, Prof. S.P. Chatterjee divided the Himalayas into following divisions –

• The Kashmir Himalayas
• The Himanchal Himalayas
• The Kumaun Himalayas
• The Central Himalayas
• The Eastern Himalayas

As the name suggests, the Kashmir Himalayas lies almost entirely in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. It covers an area of about 350,000 square km. The average height of this region is about 3,000 meters and it has the largest numbers of glaciers. The length of Kashmir Himalayas is 700 km and width is 500 km.

Indus is the most important river of Kashmir Himalayas and cuts 5200 meters deep gorge in Gilgit. Kashmir valley is located in this region and the second highest peak of the world K2 (8,611 meters) lies in this range.

The main features of Kashmir Himalayas are high snow covered peaks, deep valleys, interlocked ridges and high altitude mountain passes.

The Himachal Himalayas are mainly confined to Himachal Pradesh and covers an area of about 45,000 square km. You can see all the three ranges of Himalayas i.e. the Greater Himalayas, the Lesser Himalayas and the Outer Himalayas.

In the Himachal Himalayas, the Greater Himalaya are represented by the Zaskar range, lesser Himalayas are represented by Pir Panjal and Dhauladhar range and the Outer Himalayas are represented by Shiwalik range.

The southern slopes of the Himachal Himalayas are rugged and forested while the northern slopes are bare and show plains with lakes.

The picturesque valleys of Kullu, Kangra, Lahaul and Spiti are located in Himachal Himalayas.

After Kashmir and Himachal Himalayas comes Kumaon Himalayas, Kumaon Himalayas are located between Satluj and Kali rivers. Their length is 325 kilometre and they cover an area of 38000 square kilometres.
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The peaks of Nanda Devi, Kamet, Mana, Trishul, Badrinath, Kedarnath, Jauli and Gayatri are located in this region.The famous Nainital lake and Gangotri Glacier is also located in this region.The Kumaon Himalaya is connected to Tibet by number of Mountain passes of which Thaya La, Muling La, Mana, Niti, Marhi La, Kungribingri, Darma and Lipin Laot are important.

The central himalayas stretch from Kali river to Tista river for a distance of about 800 km and covers an area of 116,800 square km. All the ranges of Himalayas are present in this region. The famous peaks of Mt. Everest, Makalu, Kanchenjunga, Annapurna, Gosainthan and Dhaulagiri are located here. Ghaghra, Gandak and Kosi are important rivers of this region and Kathmandu and Pokhra are important valleys. The passes of Nathu La and Jelep la connects Sikkim with Tibet.

The Eastern Himalayas are located between the Tista river and Brahmaputra river. The length of Eastern Himalayas is 720 km and covers an area of 67,500 square km. The important peaks of this area are Namcha Barwa, Kula Kangri, Chamo Lhari, Hozin, Kang Sa, Gyalaperi and Kangto. The important passes of this region are Bum La, Tse La and Kangri Karpo La. These portion of the Himalayas show signs of fluvial erosion due to heavy rainfall.