The Doon Valley is an unusually wide, long valley within the Sivalik Hills and the Lesser Himalayas, in the Indian states of

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the n ...

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; Sanskrit: ''himācāl prādes;'' "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a States and union territories of India, state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen Indian Himalayan ...

and

Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...

. Within the valley lies the city of

Dehradun Dehradun (), also known as Dehra Doon, is the winter capital and the List of cities in Uttarakhand by population, most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous Dehradun district, d ...

, the winter capital of Uttarakhand state.

Geography

The Doon Valley lies between two intermittent ranges of the

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 ...

, the Outer Himalayas (a.k.a. the Siwalik Hills) to the south and the Lesser Himalayas, known locally as the Mussoorie Range. It is bounded on all sides by mountains, with northern range running from Kalsi in the west to Muni Ki Reti in the east with Mussoorie at the centre in a semi-circular arc; and southern range running at south from Paonta Sahib in the west to Haridwar in the east. The valley also forms a watershed between the

Yamuna The Yamuna (; ) is the second-largest tributary river of the Ganges by discharge and the longest tributary in India. Originating from the Yamunotri Glacier at a height of about on the southwestern slopes of Bandarpunch peaks of the Low ...

and

Ganges 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 ...

river systems. In fact, the Yamuna and Ganges are closest to each other as they pass the Doon valley, with the Yamuna forming the western boundary and the Ganges the east. It runs 75 km long from west to east. The Doon Valley is ecologically rich, particularly with regard to birdlife, with over 500 bird species having been recorded within the valley and in the surrounding areas, including the Mussoorie Hills and Rajaji National Park. The Reserved Forests and community forests in the region, in and around the valley are also botanically rich in terms of

hardwood Hardwood is wood from Flowering plant, angiosperm trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostl ...

deciduous forests (esp. ''Sal'' or Shorea robusta, and Teak), flowering and fruiting trees, natural

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

s, and

Terai The Terai or Tarai is a lowland region in parts of southern Nepal and northern India that lies to the south of the outer foothills of the Himalayas, the Sivalik Hills and north of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. This lowland belt is characterised by ...

and Bhabar ecosystems. Several rivers (e.g.

Song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...

, Tons, Suswa, Jakhan, Rispana and Asan) and a number of lesser streams flow through the valley, having their sources in either the Mussoorie Hills or the Sivalik Hills; all local rivers ultimately flow into either the Ganges or the Yamuna. Other than Rajaji National Park, the local protected areas include Asan Barrage Conservation Reserve and Jhilmil Jheel Conservation Reserve, with the 1000-acre campus of the Forest Research Institute in

representing another Important Bird Area (IBA). The valley is known for pleasant summers but winter temperatures may drop below the freezing point.

Important areas

Rajaji National Park, Kalesar National Park and Jaunsar-Bawar region adjoin the valley as well.

Towns

''In Uttarakhand:'' *

* Dehradun Cantonment * Clement Town * FRI and College Area * Raipur * Vikasnagar * Sahaspur * Herbertpur * Dakpathar * Doiwala *

Rishikesh Rishikesh, also spelt as Hrishikesh, is a city near Dehradun in the Indian state Uttarakhand. The northern part of Rishikesh is in the Dehradun district while the southern part is in the Tehri Garhwal district. It is situated on the right bank ...

* Dhalwala * Muni Ki Reti * Virbhadra * Pratitnagar ''In Himachal Pradesh:'' * Paonta Sahib

References

External links

* * Valleys of Uttarakhand Geography of Dehradun {{Uttarakhand-geo-stub

Geography

Important areas

Towns

See also

Further reading

References

External links