Chitral (district)

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Chitral district
ضلع چترال
State : Pakistan Pakistan
Province : Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Seat : Chitral
Coordinates : 36 ° 15 ′  N , 72 ° 15 ′  E Coordinates: 36 ° 15 ′ 0 ″  N , 72 ° 15 ′ 0 ″  E
Area : 14,850 km²
 
Residents : 447,362 (2017)
Population density : 30 inhabitants per km²
Time zone : PST ( UTC + 5 )
 
Website :
Map of Pakistan, position of Chitral district highlighted
Shandur locality
South side of the Tirich Mir

Chitral ( Urdu چترال Chitral ; Pashtun چترال ولسوالۍ) is now a district in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with the capital Chitral .

It borders on the special territory Gilgit-Baltistan with the capital Gilgit . Chitral was once an independent state in the Hindu Kush Mountains in northern India .

geography

The Chitral district is located on a high mountain plateau that is difficult to access and is one of the most remote areas in the world, as it can only be reached at times over four mountain passes or through the Kunar Valley from Afghanistan via Jalalabad all year round. All passes to Chitral are above 3000  m above sea level and are not passable for months in winter. The four passes are the Dorah Pass and the Broghol Pass , which lead into the Wakhank Corridor to Afghanistan, while only the Lowari Pass to Peshawar and the Shandur Pass to Gilgit in Pakistan connect. The 8.6-kilometer Lowari tunnel is due to be completed in October 2017 and will then create a winter-safe connection.

The region is very dry as the Pamir Mountains keep the monsoons away. The Chitral River , which is called Kunar in Afghanistan, flows through the district, which is between 1094  m and 7708  m high (the highest point is Mount Tirich Mir ) .

The size of Chitral is officially given as 14,850 km². The settlements, inhabited by about 450,000 people, are located along the fertile valleys of the Chitral River.

population

The population of the Chitral Valley is made up of several ethnic groups, all of whom have immigrated from different directions over the past millennium - the language spectrum is correspondingly diverse, with Kashmiri and Urdu being the most important languages.

The literacy rate in the years 2014/15 among the population over 10 years of age was 62% (women: 45%, men: 76%) and thus above the average for the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of 53%.

economy

Pasture and arable farming are practiced on the few areas that can be used for agriculture. Tourism hardly plays a role.

history

The state of Chitral was an independent kingdom until 1895, after which the British incorporated it into their empire as a princely state . In 1947, Chitral joined the newly established Islamic Republic of Pakistan and was finally integrated in 1969.

literature

Web links

Commons : Chitral District  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (2016). Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey 2014-15. Government of Pakistan, accessed June 29, 2019 .