MPPSC 2019 Prelims Paper-I · Question 46 of 99

Correct — D, Kashmir Himalaya. 'Karewas' are thick beds of lacustrine (lake-deposited) clay, silt, sand and gravel laid down during the Pleistocene when a large lake filled the intermontane Kashmir Valley between the Pir Panjal and the Greater Himalaya. As the lake drained through the Jhelum they were left as flat-topped, terraced uplands (locally called 'wudar'). This fertile Karewa soil is the basis of Kashmir's famous saffron at Pampore and of its almond and apple orchards, and the formation is confined to the Kashmir Himalaya (with a small extension into the Bhaderwah valley of Jammu).

• (a)North-East Himalaya — The heavily-folded, high-rainfall eastern (Arunachal) section has no lacustrine Karewa terraces — it is known for dense forest and deep river gorges, not lake-bed uplands.
• (b)Eastern Himalaya — The Darjeeling-Sikkim-Bhutan belt has steep, forested slopes and tea gardens, but no Karewa deposits.
• (c)Himachal-Uttarakhand Himalaya — This central section is famous for 'Duns' (longitudinal valleys such as Dehra Dun) between the Siwaliks and the Lesser Himalaya — a different landform from the lake-deposited Karewas of Kashmir.

Karewas are glacio-lacustrine (lake-bed) deposits unique to the Kashmir Valley, an intermontane basin lying between the Pir Panjal Range and the Zanskar/Greater Himalaya. Composed of unconsolidated clay, silt, sand and boulders, they now stand as flat-topped terraces above the flood plain of the Jhelum and give the valley its most productive agricultural soil.

Anchor 'Karewa' to one place — the Kashmir Valley — and to one crop, saffron. The distractors name other physiographic divisions of the Himalaya, so the trap is simply not knowing that Karewa is a Kashmir-specific feature.

• Karewas are Pleistocene lacustrine (lake-bed) deposits of the Kashmir Valley, between the Pir Panjal and the Greater Himalaya.
• They form flat-topped terraces of clay, silt and sand, ideal for saffron, almonds and apples.
• Saffron (Crocus sativus) is cultivated on Karewa soil around Pampore (Pulwama).
• The formation is restricted to the Kashmir Himalaya, with a small patch in the Bhaderwah valley of Jammu.

• Confusing Karewa (lacustrine terraces, Kashmir) with Duns (longitudinal valleys, Himachal-Uttarakhand)
• Assuming Karewa occurs across the whole Himalaya rather than only in Kashmir

MPPSC and UPSC ask either 'in which part of the Himalaya is Karewa found' or 'Karewa is associated with which crop' (saffron). Lock the chain: Karewa - Kashmir Valley - saffron.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Karewa soils of the Kashmir Valley are best known for the cultivation of:

  • (a)Saffron
  • (b)Tea
  • (c)Coffee
  • (d)Rubber

  Answer(a) Saffron — the Karewa uplands around Pampore are India's main saffron-growing tract.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Karewa formations of the Kashmir Himalaya are an example of which type of deposit?

  • (a)Lacustrine (lake-bed)
  • (b)Aeolian (wind-blown)
  • (c)Marine
  • (d)Volcanic

  Answer(a) Lacustrine — they are sediments deposited in a Pleistocene lake that once filled the valley.