Hindu Kush Mountain Range Pakistan
Hindu Kush Range, a Persian word which means “Indian Mountains”, is the extension of the Karakoram and Pamir mountain range from west. The whole northwest of Kabul and the basins of the Kabul, and Helmand rivers from that of the Amu Darya is considered to be in Hindu Kush Range. It is also considered as the sub-range of the Himalaya mountain range. It is located between the borders of two Muslim countries Pakistan and Afghanistan and is also considered to be the geographic center of population of the world.

Tirich Mir, Noshes, and Istoro Nal, the highest peaks in the Hindu Kush are located in Chitral District of Northern Pakistan. Its eastern side range is also known as the High Hindu Kush range which is located in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Chitral is considered to be the pinnacle of the Hindu Kush region. The highest peaks, as well as countless passes and massive glaciers, are located in this region. The Chiantar, Kurambar, and Terich glaciers are amongst the most extensive in the Hindu Kush and the melt water from these glaciers form the Kunar River, which eventually flows south into Afghanistan and joins the Bashgal, Panjsher, and eventually the much smaller Kabul River.

The jazz musician Katie Melua wrote a song called "Halfway Up the Hindu Kush", probably because in the 1960s and 70s Afghanistan was depicted in the media as the romantic haven of nomads and a resort for hashish-smoking hippies.
Hindu Kush
Hindu Kush a high mountain system, extending c.500 mi (800 km) W from the Pamir Knot, N Pakistan, into NE Afghanistan; rising to 25,236 ft (7,692 m) in Tirich Mir, on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Glaciated and receiving heavy snowfall, the mountains have permanently snow-covered peaks and little vegetation. Meltwater feeds the headstreams of the Amu Darya and the Indus rivers. The irrigated valleys are heavily populated, and extensive lumbering has greatly reduced the forests on the southern slopes. The system is crossed by several high-altitude passes; once used by Alexander the Great, Timur, and others in their invasions of India, they are now trade routes. The Hindu Kush were called the Caucasus Indicus by the ancient Greeks.

The Hindu Kush (Pashto/Persian: ھندوکُش), also known as Pāriyātra Parvata(Sanskrit: पारियात्र पर्वत) or Paropamisadae (Greek: Παροπαμισάδαι), is an 800 km (500 mi) long mountain range that stretches between central Afghanistanand northern Pakistan
The highest point in the Hindu Kush is Tirich Mir (7,708 m or 25,289 ft) in Chitral District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
It divides the valley of the Amu Darya (the ancient Oxus River) to the north from the Indus River valley to the south. To the east the Hindu Kush buttresses thePamir range near the point where the borders of China, Pakistan and Afghanistan meet, after which it runs southwest through Pakistan and into Afghanistan, finally merging into minor ranges in western Afghanistan.
History
The mountains have historical significance in the Indian subcontinent and China. There has been a military presence in the mountains since the time of Darius the Great. The Great Game of the 19th century often involved military, intelligence and/or espionage personnel from both the Russian and British Empires operating in areas of the Hindu Kush. The Hindu Kush were considered, informally, the dividing line between Russian and British areas of influence in Afghanistan.
During the Cold War the mountains again became militarized, especially during the 1980s when Soviet forces and their Afghan allies fought themujahideen. After the Soviet withdrawal, Afghan warlords fought each other and later the Taliban and the Northern Alliance and others fought in and around the mountains.
Distance
Eastern Hindu Kush[edit]
The Eastern Hindu Kush range, also known as the High Hindu Kush range, is mostly located in northern Pakistan and the Nuristan and Badakhshan provinces of Afghanistan. The Chitral District of Pakistan is home to Tirich Mir, Noshaq, andIstoro Nal, the highest peaks in the Hindu Kush. The range also extends intoGhizar, Yasin Valley, and Ishkoman in Pakistan's Northern Areas.
Chitral is considered to be the pinnacle of the Hindu Kush region. The highest peaks, as well as countless passes and massive glaciers, are located in this region. The Chiantar, Kurambar, and Terich glaciers are amongst the most extensive in the Hindu Kush and the meltwater from these glaciers form the Kunar River, which eventually flows south into Afghanistan and joins the Bashgal, Panjsher, and eventually the much smaller Kabul River.
Afghanistan's Hindu Kush (hin-DOO koosh) is one of the tallest mountain ranges on Earth. The steepest peak, Tirirch Mir, reaches to more than 25,000 feet. The entire range stretches more than 400 miles along the Afghan-Pakistan border. Glaciers abound, and mountain peaks are covered year-round with snow. In warmer months, glacial melt swells rivers, including the Kabul River, the Helmund River, and the Hari Rud, whose waters are used to irrigate crops, such as grapes, pomegranates, beans, and potatoes, in valley villages.
Earnings
Labour migration in hindu kush has become a key issue in today’s globalised world, and it has become a major factor in the lives of the people in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region.
Migration is a cross-cutting issue that affects mountain people and the environment in a multifaceted way.
Migration can be seen as a challenge, but it also has many potential benefits for livelihood strategies, poverty alleviation, gender equity, disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, and natural resource management, and these need to be recognised and harnessed.
Climate
The climate of the Hindu Kush is marked by the transition from the west to the south Asiatic climatic type, that is, from the area with winter and spring rains to the area of summer monsoons. This can be seen in the natural vegetation. The south side of the mountains (Nuristan, south Chitral) lies on the fringe of the Indian summer monsoon, which has produced (sometimes thick) forest vegetation above a certain elevation. From about 1,300 to 2,300 m sklerophyllous forests are predominant with Quercus and Olea (wild olive); above that up to a height of about 3,300 m one finds coniferous forests with cedars, Picea, Abies, Pinus, and junipers. The north and northwest sides of the mountains receive less rain, which falls mainly in winter and spring. Here there are sparse juniper forests from around 1,500 m to 3,000 m. The inner valleys of the Hindu Kush are in the rain shadow and display desert vegetation apart form surface-water shrubs along rivers and streams.
Economy
A development approach that incorporates the traditional knowledge of mountain people in the context of the green economy and institutional framework – and not a global agenda decided without their participation – can assist in overcoming some of the persistent challenges such as poverty and inequity faced in the region. Economy
Resources
Forage, timber, and water are the most heavily exploited resources in the Hindu Kush. Human settlements occur where land can be irrigated. Large seasonal migrations of livestock, driven by herders, fully utilize the pasturelands of remote mountain areas. Each year thousands of sheep and goats from the high pastures of Badakhshān travel through the Anjoman Pass down to the markets of Kabul.
Small hydroelectric power plants generate electricity for mountain villages in Pakistan. In the north, hydropower is generated at Pol-e Khomrī and Kondūz. Many of these are dual-purpose dams, with large downstream irrigation facilities.
Transportation
Motor vehicle roads and tracks serve all the inhabited valleys of the Hindu Kush. Every village in the Pakistan portion of the mountains can be reached by jeep; tracks over such high passes as Shandur and Lawarai in Gilgit and Chitral districts have reduced the isolation of these valleys. Of major importance is the all-weather road through the Sālang Tunnel linking northern and southern Afghanistan. Rough vehicle tracks penetrate the northern valleys, including the Vākhān region, from Feyẕābād in Badakhshān. Short-takeoff-and-landing aircraft intermittently serve remote locations and provide daily service to Chitral and Gilgit. Air service to the Vākhān region and the western Hindu Kush in Afghanistan is infrequent.
Plant life
Forests cover many southern slopes of the eastern and central Hindu Kush, where there is abundant snowfall in the winter and intermittent precipitation from the summer monsoon. In the northernmost mountains in Pakistan’s Chitral district and the Gilgit district (Pakistani-controlled Kashmir), precipitation on lower slopes is sparse; hence forest vegetation is limited to occasional juniper and birch. Large stands of deodar cedar and blue pine cloak the eastern and central spurs of the Hindu Kush in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the western Hindu Kush, forest is almost absent, and cultivated fodder trees such as poplar, willow, and Russian olive predominate. Other planted trees in irrigated mountain oases include plane trees and economically valuable species such as mulberry, jujube, and walnut. Meadowland is intermittent, depending on sunny and shady exposure, with substantial pastures found on slopes where snow accumulates; these pastures are occasionally cultivated in the summer by local and transhumant (seasonally migrating) populations. The valleys of the Swat and Dir districts, as well as parts of Chitral, support rice cultivation
. Hindu Kush, great mountain system of Central Asia. Broadly defined, it is some 500 miles (800 km) long and as wide as 150 miles (240 km).
The Hindu Kush is one of the great watersheds of Central Asia, forming part of the vast Alpine zone that stretches across Eurasia from east to west. It runs northeast to southwest and divides the valley of theAmu Darya (the ancient Oxus River) to the north from the Indus River valley to the south. To the east the Hindu Kush buttresses the Pamir range near the point where the borders of China, Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, and Afghanistan meet, after which it runs southwest through Pakistan and into Afghanistan, finally merging into minor ranges in western Afghanistan. The highest peak is Mount Tirich Mir, which rises near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to 25,230 feet (7,690 metres). * IMAGES * *
It was through the high passes of the Hindu Kush in about 1500 bc that invaders from Central Asia brought their Indo-European language—a forerunner of the Indo-Iranian languagesspoken throughout the region today. Historically, the passes have been of great military significance, providing access to the northern plains of India for such conquerors as Alexander the Great, the king of Macedonia; the Mongols Genghis Khan and Timur (Tamerlane); and their descendant Babur, the first Mughal emperor. During the period of British rule in India, the Indian government was keenly concerned with the security both of these passes and of an associated physical feature to the south, the Khyber Pass. The Hindu Kush range has rarely constituted the frontier between major powers but has usually formed part of an intermediate buffer zone. The name Hindu Kush derives from the Arabic for “Mountains of India.” Its earliest known usage occurs on a map published about ad 1000.
Physical features
The eastern limit of the Hindu Kush is difficult to determine because of a locally complex topography, although the Karambar Pass (14,250 feet [4,343 metres]) between the valleys of the Konar (called the Kunar or Chitral in Pakistan) and Gilgit rivers may be tentatively accepted as the boundary. The western limit also is uncertain, as the mountains lose height and fan out into minor ranges in Afghanistan. Geologists, however, consider the Hindu Kush range to extend much farther west to the Iranian border.
Physiography
The Hindu Kush may be divided into three main sections: the eastern Hindu Kush, which runs from the Karambar Pass in the east to the Dorāh (Do Rāh) Pass (14,940 feet [4,554 metres]) not far from Mount Tirich Mir; the central Hindu Kush, which then continues to the Shebar (Shībar) Pass (9,800 feet [2,987 metres]) to the northwest of Kabul; and the western Hindu Kush, also known as the Bābā Mountains (Kūh-e Bābā), which gradually descends to the Kermū Pass.