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About India |
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India as all of us know is a
very large country with diverse cultures and
fascinating change of race, color, creed and
places as we broadly travel across it. Most
people however fancy India as a hot country with
only places of historical importance and
fantastical legends. What however is mostly
undermined is the fact that India also boasts of
various trails that offers and wonderful peek
towards the Himalayan ranges and much more.
There are various trekking routes in India ; all
of them spread across the country be it in North
India or North East India. It is important to
note that these trekking trails however are
filled with very different experiences compared
to each other. While the most popular of them
being the Garwal trek, Darjeeling and Arunachal
Pradesh too brags a legacy of a trail being
followed by hikers all over the world for more
than five decades. |
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General Information About
India |
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Uttaranchal |
Uttaranchal became the 27th state of the
Republic of India on the 9th of November 2000 .
The State is carved out of Uttar Pradesh. It
occupies 17.3% of India 's total land area with
51,125 sq. km. It has a population of about 6.0
million at 94.4 per sq. km. It borders Tibet ,
Nepal , Himachal Pradesh.
It lies North West of the state of Uttar
Pradesh. Uttaranchal is a part of the Western
Himalayan ranges starting from the Shivalik
foothills to Greater Himalayas with Tibet as its
northeastern border. In the northwestern corner
of the state is Himachal Pradesh, while Haryana
celebrates its union with the newly formed state
with a gentle kiss. The state is surrounded by
Uttar Pradesh for most of its western and
southern boundary. Broadly, Uttaranchal can be
divided into two main parts, mountainous and
hilly regions, foot hills and Bhabar and Tarai
region of plains. The total geographical area of
Uttarnachal (excluding Hardwar) is 51, 125 sq.
kms., making border with Himachal Pradesh in
extreme West, Tibet-China in North, Nepal in
East and the plains districts of Uttar Pradesh
in the South. The hilly part of Uttaranchal
constitutes 98% of total reporting area, out of
which alone forest area constitutes
approximately 70% per cent and agriculture area
is approximately 11 per cent. The rest 19 per
cent area comes under miscellaneous categories.
From the administration point of view
Uttaranchal is divided into 13 districts (4
being constituted only in 1997), 39 tehsils and
89 development blocks .
Apart from the Tarai region in the Shivalik
foothills, the entire state of Uttaranchal is a
part of the Himalayan ranges. At 7,817 m above
sea level, Nanda Devi in the district of Chamoli
is the highest point in the state. The region
has many glaciers, passes, meadows, and trekking
routes with several major rivers like the Ganga
and Yamuna originating from here. A major part
of this Himalayan state comes under rainforests
and alpine forests that are home to some of the
highly endangered wildlife species.
The state has two distinct climatic regions: the
predominant hilly terrain and the small plain
region. The climatic condition of the plains is
very similar to its counterpart in the Gangetic
plain-that is, tropical. Summers are unbearable
with temperature going over the 40°C mark and a
lot of humidity. Winters can be chilly with
temperatures going below 5°C at times. The
Himalayan region has Alpine conditions
characterized by cold winters with snowfall for
quite a long time, good rainfall in the monsoon,
and mild summers. This climate also provides the
state with its only livelihood, i.e., tourism.
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Himachal Pradesh |
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The earliest known inhabitants of the region
were tribals called Dasas. Later, Aryans came
and they assimilated in the tribes. In the later
centuries, the hill chieftains accepted
suzerainty of the Mauryan empire, the Kaushans,
the Guptas and Kanuaj rulers. During the Mughal
period, the Rajas of the hill states made some
mutually agreed arrangements which governed
their relations. In the 19th century, Ranjit
Singh annexed/subjugated many of the states.
When the British came, they defeated Gorkhas and
entered into treaties with some Rajas and
annexed the kingdoms of others. The situation
more or less remained unchanged till 1947. After
Independence , 30 princely states of the area
were united and Himachal Pradesh was formed on
15th April, 1948 . With the recognition of
Punjab on 1st November, 1966 , certain areas
belonging to it were also included in Himachal
Pradesh. On 25th January, 1971 , Himachal
Pradesh was made a full-fledged State. The State
is bordered by Jammu & Kashmir on North, Punjab
on West and South-West, Haryana on South, Uttar
Pradesh on South-East and China on the East. The
area of state is 55673 sq kms. The capital is
Shimla with a population of urban agglomerations
110, 360. The Temperature varies from 40° C in
plains during summer - 20° C in the Alpine zones
during winters. Rainfall varies from 152 cms to
178 cms in outer Himalayas . |
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