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, including the Ladakh region.
Jhelum RiverJhelum River at Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India.Dr. Basharat Alam Shah
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Jammu and Kashmir, formerly one of the largest princely states of India, is bounded to the northeast by the Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang (China), to the east by the Tibet Autonomous Region (China) and the Chinese-administered portions of Kashmir, to the south by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab, to the southwest by Pakistan, and to the northwest by the Pakistani-administered portion of Kashmir. The administrative capitals are Srinagar in summer and Jammu in winter. Area 39,146 square miles (101,387 square km). Pop. (2011) 12,541,302.
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.
Streams and settlements in the mountains of Jammu and Kashmir state, northern India.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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The plains
The narrow zone of plains landscape in the Jammu region is characterized by interlocking sandy alluvial fans that have been deposited by streams discharging from the foothills and by a much-dissected pediment (eroded bedrock surface) covered by loams and loess (wind-deposited silt) of Pleistocene age (about 11,700 to 2,600,000 years old). Precipitation is low, amounting to about 15 to 20 inches (380 to 500 mm) per year, and it occurs mainly in the form of heavy but infrequent rain showers during the summer monsoon (June to September). The countryside has been almost entirely denuded of trees, and thorn scrub and coarse grass are the dominant forms of vegetation.
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The foothills
The foothills of the Himalayas, rising from about 2,000 to 7,000 feet (600 to 2,100 metres), form outer and inner zones. The outer zone consists of sandstones, clays, silts, and conglomerates, influenced by Himalayan folding movements and eroded to form long ridges and valleys called duns. The inner zone consists of more-massive sedimentary rock, including red sandstones of Miocene age (roughly 5.3 to 23 million years old), that has been folded, fractured, and eroded to form steep spurs and plateau remnants. River valleys are deeply incised and terraced, and faulting has produced a number of alluvium-filled basins, such as those surrounding Udhampur and Punch. Precipitation increases with elevation, and the lower scrubland gives way to pine forests higher up.
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The Pir Panjal Range
The Pir Panjal Range constitutes the first (southernmost) mountain rampart associated with the Himalayas in the state and is the westernmost of the Lesser Himalayas. It has an average crest line of 12,500 feet (3,800 metres), with individual peaks rising to some 15,000 feet (4,600 metres). Consisting of an ancient rock core of granites, gneisses, quartz rocks, and slates, it has been subject to considerable uplift and fracturing and was heavily glaciated during the Pleistocene Epoch. The range receives heavy precipitation in the forms of winter snowfall and summer rain and has extensive areas of pasture above the tree line. It is drained principally by the Jhelum, Punch, and Chenab rivers.
The Vale of Kashmir
The Vale of Kashmir is a deep asymmetrical basin lying between the Pir Panjal Range and the western end of the Great Himalayas at an average elevation of 5,300 feet (1,620 metres). During Pleistocene times it was occupied at times by a body of water known as Lake Karewa; it is now filled by lacustrine (still water) sediments as well as alluvium deposited by the upper Jhelum River. Soil and water conditions vary across the valley. The climate is characterized by annual precipitation of about 30 inches (750 mm), derived partially from the summer monsoon and partially from storms associated with winter low-pressure systems. Snowfall often is accompanied by rain and sleet. Temperatures vary considerably by elevation; at Srinagar the average minimum temperature is in the upper 20s F (about −2 °C) in January, and the average maximum is in the upper 80s F (about 31 °C) in July.
Birch trees in the western Himalayas, Jammu and Kashmir state, northern India.Ardea London
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Up to about 7,000 feet (2,100 metres), woodlands of deodar cedar, blue pine, walnut, willow, elm, and poplar occur. From 7,000 to 10,500 feet (3,200 metres), coniferous forests with fir, pine, and spruce are found. From 10,500 to 12,000 feet (3,700 metres), birch is dominant, and above 12,000 feet there are meadows with rhododendrons and dwarf willows as well as honeysuckle.
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.
Ladakh Range (background), Jammu and Kashmir state, India.© Aliaksandr Mazurkevich/Dreamstime.com
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The upper Indus River valley
The valley of the upper Indus River is a well-defined feature that follows the geologic strike (structural trend) westward from the Tibetan border to the point in the Pakistani sector of Kashmir where the river rounds the great mountainous mass of Nanga Parbat to run southward in deep gorges that cut across the strike. In its upper reaches the river is flanked by gravel terraces; each tributary builds an alluvial fan out into the main valley. The town of Leh stands on such a fan, 11,500 feet (3,500 metres) above sea level, with a climate characterized by an almost total lack of precipitation, by intense insolation (exposure to sunlight), and by great diurnal and annual ranges of temperature. Life depends on meltwater from the surrounding mountains, and vegetation is alpine (i.e., consists of species above the tree line), growing on thin soils.
The Karakoram Range
The great granite-gneiss massifs of the Karakoram Range—which straddles the Indian and Pakistani sectors of Kashmir—contain some of the world’s highest peaks. Those include K2 (also called Mount Godwin Austen) on the border of the Pakistani sector and one of the Chinese-administered enclaves, with an elevation of 28,251 feet (8,611 metres); at least 30 other peaks exceed 24,000 feet (7,300 metres). The range, which is still heavily glaciated, rises starkly from dry desolate plateaus that are characterized by extremes of temperature and shattered rock debris. The Karakoram, along with other areas in and around the Himalayan region, is often called the “roof of the world.”
Animal life
Among the wild mammals found in the state are the Siberian ibex, the Ladakh urial (a species of wild sheep with a reddish coat), the rare hangul (or Kashmir stag) found in Dachigam National Park, the endangered markhor (a large goat) inhabiting mainly protected areas of the Pir Panjal Range, and black and brown bears. There are many species of game birds, including vast numbers of migratory ducks.
People
The cultural, ethnic, and linguistic composition of Jammu and Kashmir varies across the state by region. About two-thirds of the population adheres to Islam, a greater proportion than in any other Indian state; Hindus constitute most of the remaining third. There also are small minorities of Sikhs and Buddhists. Urdu is the state’s official language.
LadakhThiksey Monastery near Leh, Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir state, India.Motohiro Sunouchi/Snotch
The Jammu region
Jammu, winter capital of the maharajas (the former Hindu rulers of the region) and second largest city in the state, was historically the seat of the Dogra dynasty. More than two-thirds of the region’s residents are classified as Hindu. Most of Jammu’s Hindus live in the southeastern portion of the region and are closely related to the Punjabi-speaking peoples in Punjab state; many speak the Dogri language. The majority of the state’s Sikhs also live in the Jammu region. To the northwest, however, the proportion of Muslims increases, with Muslims making up a dominant majority in the area around the western town of Punch.
Kashmiris of the vale and highlands
The Vale of Kashmir, surrounded by the highlands of the broader Kashmir region, always has had something of a unique character. The vast majority of the people are Muslims who speak Kashmiri or Urdu. Culturally and ethnically, their closest links are with peoples in the northwestern highlands of the Gilgit area (in the Gilgit-Baltistan district) of the Pakistani-administered sector of Kashmir. The Kashmiri language is influenced by Sanskrit and belongs to the Dardic branch of Indo-Aryan languages, which also are spoken by the various hill peoples of Gilgit; Kashmiri has rich folklore and literary traditions. The great majority of the population resides in the lower reaches of the vale. Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir’s largest city, is located on the Jhelum River.
Along the Mughal Road in the Pir Panjal Range, northwestern Jammu and Kashmir state, India, lie ruins of Aliabad rest area (sarai), one of the many historical sites in the state.Dr. Mir M. Mansoor, Chief Wildlife Biologist/J&K State Wildlife Department
Ladakh
The Great Himalayas are an ethnic and cultural as well as physical divide. The portion of the Ladakh area (sometimes called “Little Tibet”) located in northeastern Jammu and Kashmir is thinly populated. To the east, around Leh, the inhabitants are predominantly Buddhists of Tibetan ancestry who speak a Tibeto-Burman language (Ladakhi). In the region around Kargil to the west, however, the population is predominantly Muslim, most belonging to the Shiʿi branch of Islam.
Settlement patterns
The state’s physiographic diversity is matched by a considerable variety of human occupation. In the plains and foothills of the southwestern region, colonization movements from the Punjab areas over a long period of time have produced numerous agricultural settlements. In the dun regions and lower valleys of the foothills, where alluvial soils and the availability of water for irrigation make agriculture possible, the population is sustained by crops of wheat and barley, which are gathered in the spring (rabi) harvest, and of rice and corn (maize), gathered in the late summer (kharif) harvest; livestock also are raised. The upper sections of the valleys support a sparser population that depends on a mixed economy of corn, cattle, and forestry. Herders migrate to higher pastures each spring to give their flocks the necessary forage to produce milk and clarified butter, or ghee, for southern lowland markets. In winter the hill dwellers return to lower areas to work in government-owned forests and timber mills. Agricultural hamlets and nucleated villages predominate throughout the state; cities and towns such as Jammu and Udhampur function essentially as market centres and administrative headquarters for the rural populations and estates in the vicinity.
Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India: Nagin LakeHouseboats along the shore of Nagin Lake, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India.Gerald Cubitt
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Demographic trends
The population of Jammu and Kashmir continued to increase fairly rapidly from the late 20th into the early 21st century, growing by nearly one-fourth between 2001 and 2011. The state has remained largely rural, nearly three-fourths of its people living in towns and villages, but urbanization has increased. Nearly two-fifths of the urban population resides in the Srinagar region. The sex ratio is relatively poor, about 890 females per 1,000 males at the 2011 census, lower than it was in the 2001 census (900 females per 1,000 males).