Jammu and Kashmir (redirected from Indian-controlled Kashmir)

Jammu and Kashmir: see Kashmir.

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Jammu and Kashmir

State (pop., 2001: 10,143,700), northern India. With an area of 39,146 sq mi (101,387 sq km), it occupies the southern portion of the Kashmir region of the northwestern Indian subcontinent and is bordered by the portions of Kashmir administered by Pakistan and China and by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. The land is predominantly mountainous and includes segments of the Karakoram and Himalaya ranges. Much of Kashmir's Ladakh region is included in the state. There are two major lowland areas: the Jammu plain and the fertile and heavily populated Vale of Kashmir. The majority of the state's people are Muslims, although Hindus predominate in the southeastern Jammu area, and eastern Ladakh is largely Buddhist. Formerly a princely state created in the 1840s, Jammu and Kashmir became an Indian state in 1947, even as India and Pakistan were fighting for control of the entire Kashmir region. A cease-fire line, established in 1949, has since served as the state's boundary with the Pakistan-administered area. Tension has remained high in the region, and there have been periodic outbreaks of border fighting.

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Jammu and Kashmir

the official name for the part of Kashmir under Indian control

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Jammu and Kashmir 

(Kashmir), a territory in South Asia. Area, 222,000 sq km. Population approximately 5 million. Under the Indian constitution, Jammu and Kashmir is a state in the Republic of India. The chief city is Srinagar. A part of Jammu and Kashmir is controlled by the government of Pakistan.

Natural features. The territory of Jammu and Kashmir is crossed from northwest to southeast by high mountain ridges that are part of the Karakoram Range and the western Himalayas. There are glaciers, and on the slopes there are coniferous and broad-leaved forests. In the northeast the climate is mountain subtropical, which is dry with below-freezing winters. The southwest is monsoonal and warm. The important rivers are the Indus, with its tributary the Gilgit, and the Jhelum. The best developed and economically the most important area is the fertile Vale of Kashmir, located in the southwest at an elevation of approximately 1,600 m, between the Pir Panjal Range and the Great Himalayas.

Economy. More than 80 percent of the population is engaged in agriculture. The sown area totals approximately 700,000 hectares (ha), of which 312,000 ha are irrigated. Concentrated in the Vale of Kashmir is one-third of all the arable land and most of the staple crops—rice (area sown, 239,000 ha; yield in 1968-69, 487,000 tons), wheat (200,000 ha sown; 210,000 tons), and corn (241,000 ha sown; 222,000 tons). Market gardens, orchards (walnuts, almonds, apples, pears, peaches, and other fruits), and plantations of medicinal herbs are of commercial importance. The range breeding of sheep (1.2 million head), goat raising (600,000 head), cattle raising (1.8 million head), and buffalo raising (400,000 head in 1966) also play an important part in the economy. A traditional occupation is the raising of silkworms.

The principal export from Jammu and Kashmir to other areas of the country is timber. Resin is collected in the forests, and fur resources are exploited (otters and leopards). Hydroelectric power resources are estimated at 6.6 million kilowatts, with a total power station capacity of approximately 44,000 kilowatts (1969). There is extensive cottage industry producing rugs, shawls, embroidery, jewelry, and items made of wood, papier-mâhe, and leather. There are silk-reeling and woolen mills, woodworking and machine shops, and leather and rug workshops in Jammu and Kashmir.

The mild climate and scenic landscapes of the Vale of Kashmir have won it fame as an international tourist attraction.

G. V. SDASIUK