and the Pir Panjal range, lies the world famous valley of Kashmir and the famous Dal Lake. Important glaciers of South Asia such as the Baltoro and Siachen are also found in this region. The Kashmir Himalayas are also famous for Karewa formations, which are useful for the cultivation of Zafran , a local variety of saffron. Some of the important passes of the region are Zoji La on the Great Himalayas, Banihal on the Pir Panjal, Photu La on the Zaskar and Khardung La on the Ladakh range.
Some of the important fresh lakes such as Dal and Wular and salt water lakes such as Pangong Tso and Tso Moriri are also in this region. This region is drained by the river Indus, and its tributaries such as the Jhelum and the Chenab. The Kashmir and northwestern Himalayas are well-known for their scenic beauty and picturesque landscape. The landscape of Himalayas is a major source of attraction for adventure tourists.
Do you know that some famous places of pilgrimage such as Vaishno Devi, Amarnath Cave, Charar -e-Sharif, etc. are also located here and large number of pilgrims visit these places every year? Srinagar, capital city of the state of Jammu and Kashmir is located on the banks of Jhelum river. Dal Lake in Srinagar presents an interesting physical feature.
Jhelum in the valley of Kashmir is still in its youth stage and yet forms meanders – a typical feature associated with the mature stage in the evolution of fluvial land form (Figure . ). Can you name some other fluvial landforms in the mature stage of a river? Figure .
: The Himalayas Karewas Karewas are the thick deposits of glacial clay and other materials embedded with moraines. Figure . : Meandering Jhelum The southernmost part of this region consists of longitudinal valleys known as ‘duns’. Jammu dun and Pathankot dun are important examples.
The Himachal and Uttarakhand Himalayas This part lies approximately between the Ravi in the west and the Kali (a tributary of Ghaghara) in the east. It is drained by two major river systems of India,