Language: English
The Himalaya constitutes the loftiest and the mightiest of the mountain chains on the Earth. It abounds in glaciers, rivers and lakes. Its height above mean sea level varies from hundreds of meters along the foothill to more than eight kilometers in the Higher Himalaya. Its climate varies from moderately cold and extremely humid to severely cold and dry. Being a young and active mountain, its ecosystem is fragile and affords ample examples of environmental hazards – natural and anthropogenic. In short, it exhibits spectacular geomorphic features of various origins. Yet pick up any book on geomorphology and you will find that the landform examples from the Himalaya are either rare or non-existent. This book aims to fill this lacuna. The first photograph was shot In June 1962 and the last in July 2004. During the span of 42 years between the first and the last photograph, the photographic technology has undergone a tremendous transformation. The technological evolution is reflected in the quality of photographs as well. Since it is not possible to revisit all the remote areas, we have retained some of the old photographs too for they depict important geomorphologic features. This book is by no means a textbook on geomorphology but a sort of ‘Geomorphology Made Easy’.
This book shall form a resource for illustrations in future textbooks on the geomorphology, will serve as a coffee table book for naturalists, mountaineers, environmentalists and photographers and shall be an essential ingredient for geotourism.