Pir Panjal Range

Pir Panjal Range

Subject – Geography

Context – The Poonch encounter, which has continued for 15 days, is one of the longest such operations in the dense forests south of the Pir Panjal range in more than a decade.

Concept –

• The PirPanjal Range is a group of mountains in the Lesser Himalayan region, running from east-southeast (ESE) to west-northwest (WNW) across the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and the Pakistan administered Kashmir.
• The Himalayas show a gradual elevation towards the Dhauladhar and PirPanjal ranges.
• PirPanjal is the largest range of the Lesser Himalayas.
• Near the bank of the Sutlej River, it dissociates itself from the Himalayas and forms a divide between the Beas and Ravi rivers on one side and the Chenab on the other.
• The renowned Galyatmountains are also located in this range.
• The region is connected to the Valley of Kashmir via Mughal Road and used to be the historical connection of Kashmir with India.
• DeoTibba (6,001 m (19,688 ft)) and Indrasan (6,221 m (20,410 ft)) are two important peaks at the eastern end of the mountain range.
• The hill station of Gulmarg in Kashmir lies in this range.
• The PirPanjal Pass (also called Peer Ki Gali) connects the Kashmir valley with Rajouri and Poonch via the Mughal Road. It is the highest point of the Mughal Road at 3,490 m (11,450 ft) and lies to the southwest of the Kashmir Valley.
• The Jawahar Tunnel is a 2.5 km (1.6 mi) long tunnel through PirPanjalmountain under the Banihal pass connects Banihal with Qazigund on the other side of the mountain.