Kargil (District)

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Kargil District
District map
State Union Territory of Ladakh
Administrative headquarters : Kargil
Area : 14,086 km²
Residents : 143,388 (2011)
Population density : 10 people / km²
Website : www.kargil.nic.in
Map of Kargil. (This map also shows parts under Chinese administration that are part of Aksai Chin )
Locals in Kargil
Kargil

Kargil is a district in the Indian Union Territory of Ladakh .

Kargil is close to the Line of Control bordering Gilgit – Baltistan, administered by Pakistan , in the west and the Kashmir Valley, which is largely administered by India, in the south. Zanskar is part of the district along with the Suru , Wakha and Dras valleys .

Kargil has been an independent district since 1979. Pakistan attempted to capture the area in the Kargil War in 1999 . But it was repulsed by India.

In 2011, Kargil was the most sparsely populated of the 22 districts in Jammu and Kashmir.

geography

The district is located in the Himalayas and has a cool, temperate climate. Summers are warm with cool nights and winters are long and cold with temperatures as low as -40 ° C. The lowest temperature was measured at −60 ° C in Dras, about 35 miles from Kargil. The Zanskar plateau is even colder and is only inhabited by the Khampas ethnic group . The district has an area of ​​14,086 km². The Suru flows through the district in which the Parkachik Glacier is also located.

The National Highway 1D , which connects Srinagar with Leh , runs through Kargil. The road is usually only open between June and mid-November due to heavy snowfall at Zoji-La Pass . Kargil is 204 km from Srinagar. There is a road that leads to Zanskar in the south and is paved for the first 40 kilometers. The total distance to Zanskar is almost 220 kilometers and the road is only open from June to September. The region was developed for tourism by the Indian government. India and Pakistan have considered setting up a bus connection from the Pakistani city of Skardu to Kargil.

population

According to the 2011 census , 143,388 people live in the district. It ranks 603rd out of 640 districts in India. The population density is 10 people per square kilometer. The population growth from 2001 to 2011 was 20.18%. Kargil has a gender ratio of 775 women to 1,000 men and a literacy rate of 74.49%.

80% of the population are Muslim . 73% of them are Shia . Most of the Muslims are in Kargil, Dras and the lower Suru valley. Of the remaining residents, 15% are Tibetan Buddhists and Bon and 5% are Hindus or Sikh . A large part of Kargil is inhabited by the Burig and Balti ethnic groups of Tibetan origin who converted to Islam in the 16th century. They mixed up with Dard , Mon and other groups. The predominantly Muslim Dard live in the valley of Dras and speak Shina . A small number of Buddhist Dard known as Brokpa live in the Dha-Hanu area near Lamayuru Monastery. Some Arghons and Shina also live in Kargil.

languages

Purik is spoken by approximately 78% of the population. 10% speak a language of the Dard language family and 3% speak Balti. Balti is a Tibetan dialect spoken by the people of Askardu and Turtuk in the Nubra Valley near Leh. The Zanskar Buddhists speak Bhotia or Ladakhi . Kashmiri is spoken by about 50% of the Malayan residents at Zoji-La Pass. In Dras people speak three languages: besides Purik, Shina and Kashmiri.

Culture

At first, the residents of Kargil and Leh were mainly exposed to Tibetan cultural influences. With the spread of Islam, this turned into a Persian influence. This can be seen in the frequent use of Persian words and phrases in popular religious songs - the Marsia and Qasida . Until recently, children from the Agha families , descendants of Sayyid preachers as direct descendants of the Prophet Mohammad , were sent to Iraq for education. Members of other families studied Islam in Najaf in Iraq and Qom in Iran . These students are commonly called shiekh .

Solemn occasions such as weddings are strongly influenced by customs and rituals for Muslims and Buddhists. Of the two districts of Ladakh, Kargil has the more ethnically mixed population and a correspondingly larger number of local dialects than Leh. Local folk songs, the Rgya-Glu and Balti Ghazals , are very popular and performed on festive occasions. The tourism administration of Jammu and Kashmir is trying to stimulate tourism in the region, but the lack of tourist infrastructure makes this project difficult.

history

According to a theory, the name Kargil is derived from the words Khar and rKil . Khar means "castle" and rKil means "middle between castles". The place was therefore between different domains. Another theory derives the word Kargil from the words Gar and Khil . Gar means “somewhere” in the local language and Khil means “a central place”. A previous name of the area was Purig . The story of Purig can be found in the book Qadeem Ladakh by Kacho Sikander Khan, which describes the family history of the various rulers of the region.

Kargil was largely insignificant until the partition of India when the Kashmir issue led to the First Indo-Pakistani War in 1947 . There was fighting over Kargil and the entire region including Dras and the Zoji-La Pass came under Pakistani control. But they were recaptured in November 1948. The area remained with India after the armistice. There was renewed fighting in the Second Indo-Pakistani War when India twice succeeded in taking control of the entire Kargil area. The first Indian victory was on May 17, 1965, when fighting broke out on the Pakistani side in the Kachchh area and attacked India in Kashmir.

According to a decision by UNMOGIP , this profit had to be returned. On August 15, Kargil came again completely under Indian control. It had to be returned according to the Tashkent declaration . But in the Third Indo-Pakistani War in 1971, the entire region was again conquered by India under the leadership of Colonel Chewang Rinchen .

The Indian army began attacks during the night when temperatures dropped below −17 ° C and 15 Pakistani bases were captured at altitudes above 5000  m . After the defeat of Pakistan, the Shimla Agreement was signed and Kargil and other strategically important places nearby became part of India. Kargil was created in 1979 as an independent district within the Ladakh region and separated from the Leh district.

The region was again in the spotlight when in spring 1999, under the then head of the Pakistani army Pervez Musharraf , Pakistani troops occupied vacant Indian army outposts around Kargil and Dras. The result was the Kargil War , in which India retained control of Kargil through military might and diplomatic pressure.

climate

The climate is cold and temperate. The average annual temperature in Kargil is 8.6 ° C. Approximately 318 mm of precipitation falls annually. The driest month is November with 6 mm of precipitation. The most precipitation is in March with 82 mm. The warmest month of the year is July with an average temperature of 23.3 ° C. The average temperature in January is −8.8 ° C, making it the coldest month.

Animal life

Kargil is the habitat for many endangered animal species such as the snow leopard , the Tibetan wolf ( Canis lupus langier ), the Himalayan brown bear ( Ursus arctos isabellinus ), the Asiatic ibex ( Capra ibex ), the Ladakh urial ( Ovis vignei vignei ), the Musk deer ( musk spp.) And the groundhog . Aishwarya Maheshwari of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) laments a decline in wildlife populations since the Kargil War. In addition to the endangered species and birdlife in Kargil as the magpie , the house sparrow , the Hoopoe , the Rosefinch (genus) , the Chough , the Mountain Chiffchaff , the Sandpiper and the Stieglitz . The Indian army keeps horses, mules and donkeys as pack animals.

administration

Kargil district consists of nine blocks:

  • Dras
  • Kargil
  • Shargole
  • Shakar-chiktan
  • Gund Mangalpur-Trespone
  • Sankoo
  • Taisuroo
  • Zanskar
  • Lungnuk

Each block has a number of panchayats .

politics

Kargil District has two parliamentary electoral districts - Zanskar and Kargil. The MP Haji Ghulam Hassan Khan for Ladakh is from Kargil. Political parties in the region include the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference , Indian National Congress , PDP , BJP , Ladakh Union Territory Front (now affiliated with the BJP) and the Kargil Alliance .

Ladakh Autonomous Hill Council

The Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council , Kargil (LAHDC-K), created in 2003, is a locally elected assembly. The assembly has 30 members, 26 of whom are elected by the respective constituencies and four are nominated by the largest minorities and women. The council is led by the Chief Executive Councilor and has four other Executive Councilors . The Chief Executive Councilor has the rank and powers of Cabinet Minister, while the Executive Councilors have the rank of Deputy Minister.

literature

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g District Census 2011 . Census2011.co.in. 2011. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
  2. ^ Financial Express . Financial Express. June 12, 2012. Archived from the original on May 17, 2007. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved August 16, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.financialexpress.com
  3. ^ Pak considers Kargil-Skardu bus March 15, 2007 NDTV
  4. ↑ http://www.icpsnet.org/description.php ( Memento of the original from December 1, 2014 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.icpsnet.org
  5. ↑ Janet Rizvi (1996).
  6. ↑ a b c Kargil: what might have happened By Javed Hussain ( Memento of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) October 21, 2006, Dawn
  7. ↑ Assault on Enemy OPs in Kargil Posts that were returned in 1965 twice occupied again ( Memento of the original dated November 5, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - A dramatized rendering of The Liberation Times (a souvenir edition of the newspaper) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bharat-rakshak.com
  8. ↑ The Lightning Concept by Major General DK Palit (Retd.) ( Memento of the original from May 2, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bharat-rakshak.com
  9. ^ The Armed Forces of Pakistan By Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema, Pg 4
  10. ↑ Climate: Kargil - Climate graph, Temperature graph, Climate table
  11. ^ India, Pakistan and the Snow Leopard: Javed Naqi . Kafila. January 28, 2012. Retrieved August 16, 2013.
  12. ↑ Voices from Frozen Land: Javed Naqi: Human-Wildlife Conflict in Kargil: Precipitation of India-Pakistan Rivalry? . Javed-naqi.blogspot.in. January 24, 2012. Retrieved August 16, 2013.
  13. ^ Human-Wildlife Conflict in Kargil: Precipitation of India-Pakistan Rivalry? | Bargad ... बरगद . Bargad.org. February 1, 2012. Retrieved August 16, 2013.
  14. ^ The Indian Encyclopaedia - Google Books . Books.google.co.in, (Retrieved August 16, 2013).
  15. ↑ Alok Bhave: Nature watch: Trip to Cold Desert - Ladakh Part2 . Alokbhave.blogspot.in. October 6, 2011. Retrieved August 16, 2013.
  16. ↑ Statement showing the number of blocks in respect of 22 Districts of Jammu and Kashmir State including newly Created Districts ( Memento from September 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) from March 13, 2008, accessed on August 30, 2008
  17. ↑ ERO's and AERO’s . Chief Electoral Officer, Jammu and Kashmir. Archived from the original on October 4, 2011. Retrieved on August 28, 2008.

Coordinates: 34 ° 1 '  N , 76 ° 24'  E