Abstract
The Karakoram region is an integral part of the Hindu Kush–Karakoram–Himalaya (HKH) mountain system and forms the great divide between the drainage of the Indus and Tarim basins. This region has a substantial geographical, historical, economical, cultural, and geopolitical importance owing to its location, rugged topography, distinct climate regime, and the presence of numerous glaciers. It acts as a water tower where its unique assemblage paved the way for developing ancient trade routes facilitating cultural exchange between Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. It has attracted a large number of expeditions and scientific studies for more than 200 years, bringing significant advances in geographical knowledge. However, the spatial extent of the Karakoram in many studies particularly during the 2010s exhibits a large inconsistency. We, therefore, complied ≥100 maps and vast literature to present the evolution of the geographical term ‘the Karakoram’ and its spatial extent based on historical archives. We also provide a digital outline of the Karakoram region using GIS tools based on descriptive enumerations of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) and the Survey of India (SoI) which we hope will provide new insight for a wide range of scientific disciplines, including geography, glaciology, geology, history, and cartography.
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Acknowledgements
The Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology and Center for Glaciology of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi is thankfully acknowledged for financial and infrastructural support. PC is thankful to the Central University of Punjab, Bathinda (India) for providing the research facilities and the RSM grant to support this research. AKG thanks DST, New Delhi for support under J.C. Bose Fellowship (SR-S2/JCB-80/2011) by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. We also thank Priyeshu Srivastava for valuable suggestions, which improved the manuscript. RB thanks Tobias Bolch for providing an outline of the Karakoram, Wanqin Guo for discussion on the second Chinese glacier inventory, Dan Jantzen for providing the RGS Karakoram map 1939, and Michael Zemp for discussion on the Randolph Glacier Inventory (and earlier work). We extend our gratitude to Shekhar Pathak and his team for launching and feeding the Pahar website (http://pahar.in/) that provides valuable literature and historical maps on the Karakoram in digital format used in the present study.
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Bhambri, R. et al. (2022). Reassessing the Karakoram Through Historical Archives. In: Saikia, A., Thapa, P. (eds) Environmental Change in South Asia. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47660-1_8
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