CDS (II) 2022 General Knowledge · Question 4 of 120

Correct — C, 3. All three statements about the Karewas hold. On the first, the Karewa Group is the fill of a large intermontane lake that occupied the Kashmir valley: micropalaeontological work on the upper Karewa formation reports ostracod assemblages that 'indicate lacustrine conditions in the Kashmir intermontane basin during the Middle to Late Pleistocene', and the group as a whole is dated Plio-Pleistocene, so 'lacustrine deposits of Pleistocene period' is a fair description. On the second, the lake beds now survive as flat-topped terraces banked against the valley walls, and the broadest and best-known tracts — Pampore, Pulwama, Budgam, Shopian — lie on the southwestern side, on the lower slopes of the Pir Panjal. On the third, those terraces are the orchard and saffron soils of Kashmir; NCERT puts it directly, that the Kashmir Himalayas 'are also famous for Karewa formations, which are useful for the cultivation of Zafran, a local variety of saffron', and almond and walnut are grown on the same ground.

• (a)1 — Would mean two of the three fail. Both the Pir Panjal position and the saffron-almond-walnut economy are standard descriptions of the karewas, so counting only one leaves marks on the table.
• (b)2 — The near miss. Candidates who accept the lake origin and the crops often reject the Pir Panjal reference because they picture the karewas as a valley-floor feature; in fact the thickest terraces are banked against the range's lower slopes.
• (d)None — Rejects the whole set. The karewas are among the best-studied Quaternary lake deposits of the Himalaya, and the saffron of Pampore grows on them.

The Kashmir valley is a structural trough between the Pir Panjal and the Great Himalaya. Through the Plio-Pleistocene it held a lake, and the silt, clay and sand that settled in it — with glacial material carried in from the surrounding ranges — built up into deposits hundreds of metres thick. When the lake drained and the Jhelum cut down, the old lake floor was left standing as terraces, called karewa in Kashmiri and wudar locally. They are agriculturally valuable because the fine sediment holds moisture and drains well, and they sit above the flood level of the valley floor.

Two of the three statements are easy to accept and the middle one is where students hesitate. It helps to picture the sequence rather than memorise it: a lake fills the valley, sediment accumulates, the lake empties, the river incises, and what is left are benches along both flanks of the valley. One honest qualification is worth carrying — karewas occur on the northeastern side of the valley too, below the Zanskar range, so the statement describes where they are most extensively developed rather than the only place they are found. The exam is not testing that nuance; it is testing whether you can connect a Pleistocene lake bed to Kashmir's saffron. NCERT's own wording calls them 'thick deposits of glacial clay and other materials embedded with moraines', which is the same deposit described from its sediment supply rather than from its depositional setting.

• Ostracod evidence from the upper Karewa formation records lacustrine conditions in the Kashmir intermontane basin through the Middle to Late Pleistocene; the Karewa Group as a whole is Plio-Pleistocene.
• NCERT describes karewas as thick deposits of glacial clay and other materials embedded with moraines, and links them to the cultivation of Zafran, the local saffron.
• The widest karewa tracts lie on the southwestern flank of the valley, on the lower slopes of the Pir Panjal, around Pampore, Pulwama, Budgam and Shopian.
• Pampore and the terraces around it account for roughly 90 per cent of India's saffron output.
• Saffron, almond, walnut and apple are the characteristic karewa crops; saffron yields have fallen since about 2023 with warmer temperatures and erratic rainfall.

• Placing the karewas in the Kumaon or the eastern Himalaya; they are specific to the Kashmir valley.
• Reading 'glacial clay' in the textbook description as ruling out a lake origin — the sediment is glacial in source and lacustrine in setting.
• Assuming saffron is the only karewa crop; almond, walnut and apple share the same terraces.

As a statements item on the origin, age, position and crops of the karewas, or as a one-liner asking in which part of the Himalaya the karewa formation is found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Karewa formations are found in which one of the following parts of the Himalaya?

  • (a)Kashmir Himalaya
  • (b)Himachal-Uttarakhand Himalaya
  • (c)Darjiling and Sikkim Himalaya
  • (d)Arunachal Himalaya

  Answer(a) Kashmir Himalaya — the karewas are the terraced fill of the former lake that occupied the Kashmir valley between the Pir Panjal and the Great Himalaya.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Kashmir valley lies between which one of the following pairs of ranges?

  • (a)Shivalik and Dhauladhar
  • (b)Pir Panjal and the Great Himalaya
  • (c)Ladakh and Karakoram
  • (d)Zanskar and Kailash

  Answer(b) Pir Panjal and the Great Himalaya — the valley is a longitudinal trough between them, and the karewa terraces flank it on both sides.