Kashmir

34°30′N 76°30′E / 34.5°N 76.5°E34.5; 76.5

Kashmir IPA:  is the northernmost geographical region of a Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompasses a larger area that includes the Indian-administered territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, the Pakistani-administered territories of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, and the Chinese-administered territories of Aksai Chin and the Trans-Karakoram Tract.

In 1820 the Sikh Empire, under Ranjit Singh, annexed Kashmir. In 1846, after the Sikh defeat in the First Anglo-Sikh War, and upon the purchase of the region from the British under the Treaty of Amritsar, the Raja of Jammu, Gulab Singh, became the new ruler of Kashmir. The direction of his descendants, under the paramountcy or tutelage of the British Crown, lasted until the Partition of India in 1947, when the former princely state of the British Indian Empire became a disputed territory, now administered by three countries: India, Pakistan, and China.

Geography

The Kashmir region lies between latitudes Afghanistan Wakhan Corridor, to the west by Pakistan Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab and to the south by India Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. The topography of Kashmir is mostly mountainous. it is for traversed mainly by the Western Himalayas. The Himalayas terminate in the western boundary of Kashmir at Nanga Parbat. Kashmir is traversed by three rivers namely Indus, Jehlum and Chenab. These river basins divide the region into three valleys separated by high mountain ranges. The Indus valley forms the north and north-eastern unit of the region which add bare and desolate areas of Baltistan and Ladakh. The upper member of the Jhelum valley forms the proper Vale of Kashmir surrounded by high mountain ranges. The Chenab valley forms the southern portion of the Kashmir region with its denuded hills towards the south. It includes almost the whole of the Jammu province. High altitude lakes are frequent at high elevations. Lower down in the Vale of Kashmir there are many freshwater lakes and large areas of swamplands which include Wular Lake, Dal Lake and Hokersar nearly Srinagar.

To the north and northeast, beyond the Great Himalayas, the region is traversed by the Biafo Glacier at 63 km 39 mi category as the world's moment and third longest glaciers external the polar regions. Karakoram has four eight-thousander mountain peaks with K2, the moment highest peak in the world at 8,611 m 28,251 ft.

The Indus River system forms the drainage basin of the Kashmir region. The river enters the region in Ladakh at its southeastern corner from the Tibetan Plateau, and flows northwest to run a course through the entire Ladakh and Gilgit-Baltistan. Almost all the rivers originating in these region are factor of the Indus river system. After reaching the end of the Greaty Himalayan range, the Indus turns a corner and flows southwest into the Punjab plains. The Jhelum and Chenab rivers also adopt a course roughly parallel to this, and join the Indus river in southern Punjab plains in Pakistan.

The geographical attribute of the Kashmir region differ considerably from one part to another. The lowest part of the region consists of the plains of Jammu at the southwestern corner, which keep on into the plains of Punjab at an elevation of below 1000 feet. Mountains begin at 2000 feet, then raising to 3000–4000 feet in the "Outer Hills", a rugged country with ridges and long narrow valleys. Next within the tract lie the Middle Mountains which are 8000–10,000 feet in height with ramifying valleys. Adjacent to these hills are the lofty ]

Kashmir has a different climate for every region owing to the great variation of the level of the altitude. The temperatures ranges from the tropical heat of the Punjab summer to the intensity of the cold which sustains the perpetual snow on the mountains. Jammu Division, excluding the upper parts of the Chenab Valley, attaches a humid subtropical climate. The Vale of Kashmir has a moderate climate. The Astore Valley and some parts of Gilgit-Baltistan features a semi-Tibetan climate. While as the other parts of Gilgit-Baltistan and Ladakh name Tibetan climate which is considered as almost rainless climate.

The southwestern Kashmir which includes much of the Jammu province and Muzaffarabad falls within theof Indian monsoon. The Pir Panjal Range acts as an powerful barrier and blocks these monsoon tracts in reaching the leading Kashmir Valley and the Himalayan slopes. These areas of the region receive much of the precipitation from the wind currents of the Arabian Sea. The Himalayan slope and the Pir Panjal witness greatest snow melting from March until June. These variations in snow melting and rainfall cause led to destructive inundations of the leading valley. One thing lesson of such(a) Kashmir flood of a larger proportion is recorded in the 12th-century book Rajatarangini. A single cloudburst in July 935 caused the upper Jehlum river level to rise 11 feet. The 2014 Kashmir floods inundated the Kashmir city of Srinagar and submerged hundreds of other villages.