International Mountain Day - the mountain ranges of Kashmir

In 2002 United Nations declared December 11 annual International Mountain Day (IMD) focusing on the conservation of mountain biological diversity and preservation.

President of the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Mountaineering & Hiking Club, Mohammed Saleem, posted an interesting article on the mountain ranges of Kashmir (http://www.greaterkashmir.com) to mark IMD. Saleem states that all of the world’s famous mountains taller than 7,000 metres are in Asia and all 14 peaks above 8,000 metres are in the Greater Himalaya range. The State of Jammu and Kashmir comprises three geographical regions: (1) The Lesser Himalayas, also called Jehlum Valley (Kashmir); (2) The Inner Himalayas or the Indus Valley (Ladakh & frontier areas) which is also known as Trans Himalayas; and (3) The Outer Himalayas, also called Southern Mountain Range (Jammu). The Valley of Kashmir is a longitudinal depression in the north-western Himalayan range carved tectonically, and situated at an altitude of 1,590 metres. The length of this oval shaped valley has a parallel axis to the general direction of the mountains bordering it which include: the middle mountains, the Pir Panjal, the Himalayas, the Zanaskar, the Ladakh, the Karakoram, and the Shivaliks. Uniquely the valley of Kashmir is covered with majestic mountain ranges which possess a source of most of Earth’s fresh water, repositories of biological diversity, popular destinations for tourism and recreation, and areas of important cultural diversity, knowledge and heritage. It also has volcanic mountains. The Soyamji peak erupted volcanic lava in 1934 for about 13 months.

Saleem writes that mountaineering and trekking in some of the surrounding mountain ranges of Kashmir Valley, such as Karakoram and the twin peaks of Nun and Kun have remained a mountaineer’s dream. English mountaineer, Eric Shipton, described the Karakoram prior to his pioneering 1930s expeditions of the mountain range, located west of the Himalayas, as “blank on the map.” At that time the range virtually formed an unexplored boundary between cultures, nations and religions, with China on the east, India on the south, Afghanistan to the north, and Pakistan to the west. The range has Earth’s highest concentration of glaciers, some of which are the longest outside the Polar Regions and the longest concentration of tall peaks in the world, with more than sixty peaks over 7,000 metres. Among these is K2 (8,611m), the second highest mountain in the world. Saleem lists the mountains in the Kashmir Valley and provides facts on the naming of K1 to K5 Mountains, their subsequent name change to correspond to mountaineers, and the history of the Kashmir mountaineering club (established in 1934).

Since this year’s theme for the International Mountain Day is “Mountains and Forests” the ecological system of the mountains has become too fragile to bear more assaults. Saleem states that mountains are no isolated ecosystem; they are highlands and lowlands interlinked in complex ways. Mountain forests are ecologically complex and biologically diverse. Over the decades the mountain forests have come under significant pressure for timber, water, agricultural land, unplanned urbanization, and recreational areas. Similarly, the denudation of forests in the State of Jammu and Kashmir has been rampant in the last couple of decades. He states that stumps of cut adult alpine trees in Kupwara, Tusamaidan and Doodpatri forest compartments look like cemetery grave stones from afar, and horizontal deep cracks can be seen in glaciers that weren’t there twenty years ago. These signs highlight their fragile existence. Further degradation will affect the ecological balance of flora and fauna, wildlife, glaciers, and watersheds immeasurably.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).