Nubra Valley

Nubra, also called Dumra, is a historical region of Ladakh, India that is currently administered as a subdivision and a tehsil in the Leh district. Its inhabited areas form a tri-armed valley cut by the Nubra and Shyok rivers. Its Tibetan name ''Dumra'' means a "valley of flowers".
Demands have been raised and BJP has hinted at creation of Nubra as a new district.3,000 Demonstrate for Separate District in Sub-Zero Temperatures at Kargil
The Wire, 06/FEB/2020. Diskit, the capital of Ladakh.

The Shyok River meets the Nubra River (or Siachan River) to form a large valley that separates the Ladakh and Karakoram Ranges. The Shyok river is a tributary of the Indus river. The average altitude of the valley is more than above the sea level. The common way to access this valley is to travel over the Khardung La pass from Leh.

Foreign nationals are required to get a Protected area permit to visit Nubra. Since 1 April 2017 Indian citizens are also required to get an Inner Line Permit to visit it.

Name

Nubra () means "western" in Ladakhi, thus referring to the "western valley", perhaps distinguishing it from the eastern Shyok river valley, which is thinly populated. The traditional name of the region is Dumra (), meaning the "valley of flowers".

Geography

Alexander Cunningham listed Nubra as one of the five natural and historical divisions of Ladakh. Nubra occupies the northeastern portion of Ladakh, bordering Baltistan and Chinese Turkestan in the north, and the Aksai Chin plateau and Tibet in the east. In Cunningham's conception, Nubra includes all the region drained by the Nubra and Shyok rivers. it is 128 miles long and 72 miles wide, making up an area of 9,200 square miles. It extends south till the Pangong Lake.

In modern nomenclature, the Nubra region is divided into " Diskit Nubra" in the north and the " Darbuk region" in the south, both of which are regarded as tehsils and subdivisions of the Leh district. The Diskit Nubra region includes the Turtuk block populated by Balti people, which became a part of Indian-administered Kashmir after the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, and the unpopulated Siachen Glacier region.

The populated part of Nubra is often described as a "tri-armed valley",
the three arms being:
* the Nubra River Valley (divided into three sections called ''Yarma'', ''Tśurka'' and ''Farka''),
* ''Gyen'', the upper Shyok valley from its southern bend till the confluence with the Nubra River, and
* ''Shama'', the lower Shyok valley from the confluence till the Chorbat area.
The eastern Shyok valley is mostly unpopulated, even though it has numerous camping sites that have been used by trade caravans. Murgo is a village on the tributary called Murgo Nala.

Topography

Like the rest of the Tibetan Plateau, Nubra is a high altitude cold desert with rare precipitation and scant vegetation except along river beds. The villages are irrigated and fertile, producing wheat, barley, peas, mustard and a variety of fruits and nuts, including blood apples, walnuts, apricots and even a few almond trees. Most of Nubra is inhabited by Nubra dialect or Nubra Skat speakers. The majority are Buddhists. In the western or lowest altitude end of Nubra near the Line of Control i.e. the Indo-Pak border, along the Shyok River, the inhabitants of Turtuk are Balti of Gilgit-Baltistan, who speak Balti, and are Shia and Sufia Nurbakhshia Muslims.

Siachen Glacier lies to the north of the valley. The Sasser Pass and the famous Karakoram Pass lie to the northwest of the valley and connect Nubra with Uyghur (Mandarin : Xinjiang). Previously much trade passed through the area towards western China's Xinjiang and Central Asia. The people of Baltistan also used the Nubra valley for passage to Tibet.Senge H. Sering,
“Reclaiming Nubra” – Locals Shunning Pakistani Influences
, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, Delhi, 17 August 2009.

Places

Diskit