Bhabar or Bhabhar is a region south of the Lower

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

and the Sivalik Hills in Garhwal and Kumaon,

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The Bhabhar region contains some of the largest cities of Kumaon and Garhwal: Dehradun, Haridwar, Haldwani, Rishikesh, Ramnagar, Tanakpur and Kotdwar. It is the alluvial apron of sediments washed down from the Sivaliks along the northern edge of the

Indo-Gangetic Plain The Indo-Gangetic Plain, also known as the Northern Plain or North Indian River Plain, is a fertile plain spanning across the northern and north-eastern part of the Indian subcontinent. It encompasses North India, northern and East India, easte ...

The Indo-Gangetic Plains are generally thought of as a flat region with no variations, although this isn't true. The plains can be classified into four regions on the basis of relief features. The Bhabar is a belt of 8–16 km lying parallel to the slopes of the Sivaliks, where the river descending from the mountains deposit pebbles. The streams flow through the pebbles the region, hence disappearing from sight. They re-emerge only after some distance south, in the relief feature Terai.

Etymology

The name ''Bhabar'' refers to a local tall-growing grass, '' Eulaliopsis binata'', used for the manufacture of paper and rope.

Overview

Bhabar plains are located in Kumaon and Garhwal. Bhabar is the gently-sloping coarse alluvial zone below the Sivalik Hills (outermost foothills of the

) where streams disappear into permeable

sediment Sediment is a solid material that is transported to a new location where it is deposited. It occurs naturally and, through the processes of weathering and erosion, is broken down and subsequently sediment transport, transported by the action of ...

s. The underground water level is deep in this region, then rises to the surface in the Terai below where coarse alluvium gives way to less permeable silt and

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

. The

Ganges River The Ganges ( ; in India: Ganga, ; in Bangladesh: Padma, ). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international which goes through India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China." is a trans-boundary rive ...

lies to the west and Sharda to the east. Being at the junction of Himalayas and the Indo-Gangetic Plain, Bhabar contains almost all the important trade and commerce hubs of Kumaon, including its largest city Haldwani. Due to the top-soil replenishment every

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annu ...

, It is also a fertile area with large yields per unit area.

History

In 1901 Bhabar was also one of four division of Nainital district.1857
The Imperial Gazetteer of India 1909, v. 18, p. 325. It included 4 towns and 511 villages with a combined population of 93,445 (1901), spread over .Nainital District
The Imperial Gazetteer of India 1909, v. 18, p. 326. It corresponded to the current subdivision of Haldwani. Bhabar lands were used by Gujjar cattle herders of Kumaon and Garhwal. They spend their winters in bhabars.

References

External links

* Eulaliopsis binata at '' wikispecies'' {{Uttarakhand Uttarakhand Geography of Uttarakhand Himalayas