The parallel ranges: Trans-Himalaya, Greater Himalaya, Lesser Himalaya and Shiwalik

Detail

The Himalaya as a set of parallel belts

• The Himalaya is a young fold mountain system. A fold mountain forms when two land masses push together and the rock layers between them crumple upward.

• It rose in the Tertiary Himalayan orogeny. An orogeny is a period of mountain building. It happened when the Indian plate pushed into the Eurasian plate.

• Size: it runs about 2,500 km from east to west [6]. (NCERT: about 2,400 km.) It is 200-400 km wide from south to north [6].

• The ranges run side by side. From north to south they are:
• Trans-Himalaya (also called the Tibetan or Tethys Himalaya) [6]
• Greater Himalaya (Himadri)
• Lesser Himalaya (Himachal)

• Shiwalik (Outer or Sub-Himalaya) [6]

• Height falls as you go south. The Greater Himalaya averages about 6,000 m, the Lesser Himalaya 3,700-4,500 m and the Shiwalik 900-1,100 m.

Range (north → south)	Other name	Average height	Width	Rock / main feature
Trans-Himalaya	Tibetan Himalaya	—	—	Karakoram, Ladakh, Zaskar and Kailash ranges
Greater Himalaya	Himadri, Higher Himalaya	about 6,000 m	50-75 km [6]	granite core, permanent snow, glaciers
Lesser Himalaya	Himachal, Lower Himalaya	3,700-4,500 m [5]	—	Pir Panjal, Dhauladhar; valleys and hill stations
Shiwalik	Outer / Sub-Himalaya	900-1,100 m (crests can reach 1,500 m [6])	10-50 km	loose river gravel and boulders; duns

Faults that separate the belts

• The belts are divided by thrust faults. A thrust fault is a crack in the crust where one block of rock is pushed up and over another. All the main Himalayan thrusts slope down towards the north [7].
• Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT, also written MFT): separates the Shiwalik from the Indo-Gangetic plain [7].
• Main Boundary Thrust (MBT): the southern edge of the Lesser Himalaya, where it meets the Shiwalik [7].
• Main Central Thrust (MCT): separates the Lesser Himalaya from the Greater Himalaya [7].

• South Tibetan Detachment (STD): separates the Greater Himalaya from the Indus-Tsangpo Suture Zone (ITSZ) [7]. A suture zone is the line where two plates have joined.

• The rocks still move. India keeps pushing north. Along the Main Himalayan Thrust, the boundary between the two plates, the rocks slip by about 12-21 mm a year [7]. Strain builds up and is released as earthquakes.

• Age: the Shiwalik rocks were laid down from the middle Miocene to the late Pleistocene [7]. This makes them the youngest rocks in the Himalaya.

Trans-Himalaya (Tibetan Himalaya)

• Location: it lies north of the Greater Himalaya. Most of it is in Tibet (China) and Ladakh.
• Karakoram range:
• K2 (Godwin Austen), 8,611 m, is in Gilgit-Baltistan. India claims this area, but Pakistan holds it. K2 is the world's second highest peak, and India officially counts it as its own highest.

• The range holds the Siachen and Baltoro glaciers. These are among the longest glaciers outside the polar regions.

• Ladakh and Zaskar ranges:

• The Indus flows northwest in the long valley between the Ladakh range (to the north) and the Zaskar range (to the south).

• Near Gilgit, the Indus turns and cuts across the Ladakh range, then flows south into Pakistan.

• Kailash range (Tibet):

• It lies near the sources of three big rivers: the Indus, the Satluj and the Brahmaputra (called the Tsangpo in Tibet).
• Sacred Mount Kailash stands in this range.

Greater Himalaya (Himadri)

• Himadri means "abode of snow". It is the highest and most continuous range.
• Main features:
• Its average height is about 6,000 m.
• It has a granite core. Granite is a hard rock that forms when molten rock cools slowly deep underground.
• It is covered by permanent snow and glaciers, which feed perennial rivers (rivers that flow all year).
• Very few people live here because it is too cold and steep.

• It is 50-75 km wide [6].

• Main peaks:

Peak	Height	Where	Key fact
Mount Everest	8,848.86 m (2020) [4]	Nepal-China (Tibet) border	world's highest; called Sagarmatha in Nepal and Chomolungma in Tibet
Kanchenjunga	8,586 m	Sikkim-Nepal border	world's 3rd highest; highest peak in land India actually controls
Nanga Parbat	8,126 m	Gilgit-Baltistan	western anchor of the Himalaya
Nanda Devi	7,816 m	Uttarakhand	highest peak wholly inside India
Namcha Barwa	about 7,755 m	Tibet	eastern anchor of the Himalaya
Kamet, Trisul, Badrinath	—	Uttarakhand	other big Himadri peaks

• Mount Everest:
• In 2020, China and Nepal jointly announced a new height of 8,848.86 m (29,031.69 ft), which is now widely accepted [4].
• Its exact height is debated because snow depth, gravity and the bending of light all affect the survey [4].

• Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary first climbed it in 1953.

• Namcha Barwa and the Tsangpo gorge:

• The Tsangpo flows east across Tibet and then makes a sharp U-turn around Namcha Barwa.

• There it cuts one of the deepest gorges in the world. After the turn, it enters Arunachal Pradesh as the Siang and later becomes the Brahmaputra.

• The ends of the range: Nanga Parbat (west) and Namcha Barwa (east) are the two ends, or "anchors". Near both, the Himalaya bends sharply. These bends are called syntaxes.

Lesser Himalaya (Himachal)

• Location: it lies between the Greater Himalaya to the north and the Shiwalik to the south. It runs about 2,500 km northwest to southeast [5].
• Height: it averages 3,700-4,500 m (12,000-15,000 ft) [5].
• Ranges:
• Pir Panjal range:
  • It is the longest range of the Lesser Himalaya. It lies south of the Kashmir valley in Jammu and Kashmir.
  • The Jhelum rises at Verinag at its foot. From there it flows through the Kashmir valley and Wular lake.
  • The Banihal pass crosses it.
  • The Jawahar tunnel and the newer Banihal-Qazigund road tunnel pass under it.
• Dhauladhar range: in Himachal Pradesh, above the Kangra valley.
• Mussoorie range: in Uttarakhand.

• Mahabharat range: in Nepal.

• Tunnels under the Pir Panjal (Jammu-Kashmir link):

Tunnel	Type	Length	Opened	Key fact
Banihal-Qazigund	road (twin tube)	8.45 km	24 April 2022 [2]	cuts the road distance by 16 km and the trip by about 1.5 hours [2]; cost over ₹3,100 crore [2]
Pir Panjal railway tunnel (T-80)	rail	11.2 km	26 June 2013 [3]	first direct rail link between the Kashmir valley and the Jammu region [3]

• The road tunnel has two tubes, one for each direction. They are joined by a cross passage every 500 m so people can escape in an emergency [2].

• Valleys: Kashmir (between the Pir Panjal and the Greater Himalaya), Kangra and Kullu (both in Himachal Pradesh).

• Hill stations: Shimla, Mussoorie, Nainital and Darjeeling. Summers here are cool, so the British built hill towns in this belt.
• Kath-kuni houses (Himachal Pradesh):
• They are built from layers of stone and timber.
• Thick walls keep the house warm in winter.
• Wood bends during a quake instead of cracking, so the houses resist earthquakes.

Shiwalik (Outer Himalaya)

• Location: it is the southernmost and youngest belt. It rises straight up from the Indo-Gangetic plain. The Himalayan Frontal Thrust marks its southern edge [7].
• Size: it averages 900-1,100 m in height. Crests in places reach 900-1,500 m but seldom go above 2,000 m [6]. It is 10-50 km wide.
• Why it erodes so easily:
• Cause: it is made of unconsolidated (loose, not cemented) river gravel and boulders. Himalayan rivers carried this material down and dropped it here.
• Process: these loose layers were then lifted up. Heavy monsoon rain on bare slopes washes them away easily.

• Result: fast soil erosion and many landslides.

• Duns:

• A dun is a long, flat valley between the Shiwalik and the Lesser Himalaya. It runs parallel to the ranges, so it is a longitudinal valley.
• Examples are Dehra Dun, Kotli Dun and Patli Dun. Dehra Dun is in Uttarakhand.

• How duns formed: when the Shiwalik rose, it blocked rivers flowing south. Lakes formed behind it and filled with sediment. Later the rivers cut through, and flat valley floors were left behind.

• Chos:

• In Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, the bare southern slopes of the Shiwalik are cut by seasonal streams called chos.
• Forests here were cleared, so rain runs off fast. The chos carve deep gullies and turn the land into badlands that cannot be farmed.

Prelims Hooks

• Order from north to south: Trans-Himalaya → Greater Himalaya (Himadri) → Lesser Himalaya (Himachal) → Shiwalik (Outer Himalaya).
• Order of thrusts from south to north: Himalayan Frontal Thrust (plain/Shiwalik) → MBT (Shiwalik/Lesser) → MCT (Lesser/Greater) → South Tibetan Detachment (Greater/Indus-Tsangpo Suture Zone) [7].
• Highest peaks, three different questions: K2 (8,611 m) is India's officially claimed highest. Kanchenjunga (8,586 m) is the highest in land India controls. Nanda Devi (7,816 m) is the highest wholly inside India.
• Ends of the Himalaya: Nanga Parbat is the western anchor. Namcha Barwa is the eastern anchor, where the Tsangpo makes its U-turn gorge.
• Everest: 8,848.86 m, jointly announced by China and Nepal in 2020 [4]. Trap: India did not make this announcement.
• Indus: it flows northwest between the Ladakh and Zaskar ranges and cuts through the Ladakh range near Gilgit.
• Pir Panjal: the longest Lesser Himalayan range. The Jhelum rises at Verinag. The Banihal-Qazigund road tunnel is 8.45 km long (opened 2022) [2]. The rail tunnel T-80 is 11.2 km long (opened 2013) [3].
• Dun–range match: duns lie between the Shiwalik and the Lesser Himalaya, not between the Lesser and Greater Himalaya. The Kashmir valley lies between the Pir Panjal and the Greater Himalaya.
• Chos: seasonal streams on the Shiwalik in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.
• Kath-kuni: stone-and-timber houses in Himachal Pradesh that resist earthquakes.

Mains Points

• Each belt has its own rock, so each has its own hazard (GS-I/GS-III):
• The Shiwalik's loose gravel brings landslides, chos and badlands.
• The Lesser Himalaya, which has the most towns, sits between the MBT and MCT faults.
• The Greater Himalaya brings glacier and avalanche risk.

• India is still moving north, and the plate boundary slips about 12-21 mm a year [7]. Strain builds up for great earthquakes, so building codes and land-use zoning must follow these belts.

• Connectivity across the Pir Panjal: the Banihal pass is often closed by snow. All-weather tunnels now link the Kashmir valley with Jammu year-round: the road tunnel (8.45 km, 2022) [2] and the rail tunnel (11.2 km, 2013) [3]. This helps trade, tourism and security. But tunnelling through young, broken rock is hard to engineer and needs escape passages [2].

• Settlements follow the relief: few people live in the Himadri. Hill stations and valley farming are found in the Himachal (Kashmir, Kangra, Kullu). Cities such as Dehradun have grown in the flat duns. Unplanned building on weak slopes, like those around Shimla and Nainital, makes landslide and earthquake risk worse. Traditional designs such as kath-kuni show how to build safely.
• Water security: the snow and glaciers of the Greater Himalaya and the Trans-Himalaya (Siachen, Baltoro, the Kailash source area) feed the Indus, Satluj and Brahmaputra. Their health matters for farming and hydropower across north India, and between India and its neighbours.