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The western division of the Uttarakhand Himalaya, holding the sources of the Ganga and Yamuna and India's highest peaks.
The Garhwal Himalaya is the mountainous region occupying the western half of Uttarakhand, lying between the Himachal Himalaya to the west and the Kumaon Himalaya to the east. It is a section of the Kumaon-Garhwal Himalaya, the stretch of the Himalayan arc lying between the Satluj and the Kali rivers. The region contains some of the highest peaks lying wholly within India, the glaciers that feed the Ganga and the Yamuna, and the four principal Hindu pilgrimage sites known as the Char Dham.
Type: PhenomenonOccupies the western part of Uttarakhand, adjoining the Kumaon Himalaya to the east
Contains Nanda Devi, the highest mountain lying entirely within India at over 7,800 metres
Source region of the Ganga system, through the Bhagirathi from the Gangotri Glacier and the Alaknanda from the Satopanth and Bhagirath Kharak glaciers
Source of the Yamuna, at the Yamunotri glacier
Home to the Char Dham — Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath
Includes Nanda Devi National Park and the Valley of Flowers, jointly inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Frequency: Himalayan divisions, glaciers and river sources are a standing feature of UPSC Prelims physical geography
Uttarakhand (western half)
Nanda Devi, over 7,800 metres — highest mountain entirely within India
7,756 metres
7,138 metres
Gangotri, Satopanth, Bhagirath Kharak, Yamunotri
Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, Badrinath
Nanda Devi National Park and Valley of Flowers National Park
Gangotri Glacier
One of the largest glaciers in the Indian Himalaya; its snout at Gaumukh is the source of the Bhagirathi, the headstream of the Ganga.
Chaukhamba massif
A four-summited massif, its name meaning 'four pillars', which anchors the Gangotri, Bhagirath Kharak and Satopanth glacier systems.
Devprayag
The confluence where the Bhagirathi and the Alaknanda join and the river is thereafter called the Ganga.
Valley of Flowers
A high-altitude alpine meadow in Chamoli district famed for its endemic flora, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site with Nanda Devi National Park.
The Garhwal Himalaya is the water tower of northern India: the Ganga and the Yamuna, on which the entire Indo-Gangetic plain depends, both originate here from its glaciers. That makes glacial retreat in the region a direct question of water security rather than a purely scientific one. The region is also seismically active, lying in the highest earthquake risk zones, and its steep young slopes combined with heavy monsoon rainfall make it exceptionally prone to landslides, flash floods and glacial lake outburst floods. The tension between pilgrimage and hydropower infrastructure on one hand and slope stability on the other is one of the standing policy debates in Indian environmental governance.
Garhwal Himalaya: western Uttarakhand, between the Himachal and Kumaon Himalaya
Nanda Devi is its highest peak and the highest mountain entirely within India
Bhagirathi rises at the Gangotri Glacier; Alaknanda from Satopanth and Bhagirath Kharak
Bhagirathi and Alaknanda unite at Devprayag to form the Ganga
Char Dham: Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, Badrinath
Nanda Devi National Park and Valley of Flowers form a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Nanda Devi is the highest peak of the region, rising to over 7,800 metres, and it is the highest mountain located entirely within India.
The Bhagirathi, the headstream of the Ganga, rises at Gaumukh, the snout of the Gangotri Glacier. It joins the Alaknanda at Devprayag, and the combined river is thereafter called the Ganga.
The four pilgrimage sites of Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath, all located in the Garhwal Himalaya.
Both lie in Uttarakhand and together form the Kumaon-Garhwal Himalaya between the Satluj and Kali rivers. Garhwal occupies the western half of the state and Kumaon the eastern half.