South Asia Geography

Himalayan & Hindu Kush Mountains The Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region extends 3,500 km over all or part of eight countries from Afghanistan in the west to Myanmar in the east. It is the source of ten large Asian river systems -– the Amu Darya, Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra (Yarlungtsanpo), Irrawaddy, Salween (Nu), Mekong (Lancang), Yangtse (Jinsha), Yellow River (Huanghe), and Tarim (Dayan), - and provides water, ecosystem services, and the basis for livelihoods to a population of around million people in the region. The Himalayan range alone has the total snow and ice cover of 35,110 sq.km containing 3,735 cu.km of eternal snow and ice (Qin 2002). The total for the region is not yet calculated.

Ganges & Indus Rivers From time immemorial the Ganges has been the holy river of Hinduism. For most of its course it is a wide and sluggish stream, flowing through one of the most fertile and densely populated regions in the world. The Indus is a major south- flowing river in South Asia. The total length of the river is 3,180 km (1,980 mi) which makes it one of longest rivers in Asia.

Monsoons of India The monsoons affects the Indian subcontinent, where it is one of the oldest and most anticipated weather phenomena and an economically important pattern every year from June through September. Yet it is only partly understood and notoriously difficult to predict. The rainy season comes in India when the summer monsoons blow. The winter monsoon, on the other hand, is so dry that vegetation withers and the soil becomes parched and cracked, as in a desert.

Deccan Plateau Deccan, the entire southern peninsula of India south of the Narmada River, marked centrally by a high triangular tableland. The name derives from the Sanskrit daksina (“south”). The plateau is bounded on the east and west by the Ghats, escarpments that meet at the plateau’s southern tip. Its northern extremity is the Satpura Range.

Earthquake Zones Along the southern border of Nepal is the so-called Indus-Yarlung suture zone, where what is now the Indian subcontinent collided 40 million to 50 million years ago with the Eurasian plate, a region that includes most of Europe and Asia. The collision created the Himalayan mountain range, the peaks of which are still rising by around one centimeter a year as a result. As the India plate pushes its way northward into Asia, stress and pressure builds up at the point where the two landmasses meet. When that pressure becomes too much, one landmass slides under another, releasing a shockwave that we call an earthquake.