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Bhutan The Land
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Figure 14. Bhutan: Topography and Drainage
Landlocked Bhutan is situated in the eastern Himalayas
and is
mostly mountainous and heavily forested. It is bordered
for 470
kilometers by Tibet (China's Xizang Autonomous Region) to
the north
and northwest and for 605 kilometers by India's states of
Sikkim to
the west, West Bengal to the southwest, Assam to the south
and
southeast, and Arunachal Pradesh (formerly the North-East
Frontier
Agency) to the east. Sikkim, an
eighty-eight-kilometer-wide
territory, divides Bhutan from Nepal, while West Bengal
separates
Bhutan from Bangladesh by only sixty kilometers. At its
longest
east-west dimension, Bhutan stretches around 300
kilometers; it
measures 170 kilometers at its maximum north-south
dimension,
forming a total of 46,500 square kilometers, an area
one-third the
size of Nepal. In the mid-1980s, about 70 percent of
Bhutan was
covered with forests; 10 percent was covered with
year-round snow
and glaciers; nearly 6 percent was permanently cultivated
or used
for human habitation; another 3 percent was used for
shifting
cultivation (tsheri), a practice banned by the
government;
and 5 percent was used as meadows and pastures. The rest
of the
land was either barren rocky areas or scrubland.
Early British visitors to Bhutan reported "dark and
steep
glens, and the high tops of mountains lost in the clouds,
constitut[ing] altogether a scene of extraordinary
magnificence and
sublimity." One of the most rugged mountain terrains in
the world,
it has elevations ranging from 160 meters to more than
7,000 meters
above sea level, in some cases within distances of less
than 100
kilometers of each other. Bhutan's highest peak, at 7,554
meters
above sea level, is north-central Kulha Gangri, close to
the border
with China; the second highest peak, Chomo Lhari,
overlooking the
Chumbi Valley in the west, is 7,314 meters above sea
level;
nineteen other peaks exceed 7,000 meters
(see
fig. 14).
In the north, the snowcapped Great Himalayan Range
reaches
heights of over 7,500 meters above sea level and extends
along the
Bhutan-China border. The northern region consists of an
arc of
glaciated mountain peaks with an arctic climate at the
highest
elevations. Watered by snow-fed rivers, alpine valleys in
this
region provide pasturage for livestock tended by a sparse
population of migratory shepherds.
The Inner Himalayas are southward spurs of the Great
Himayalan
Range. The Black Mountains, in central Bhutan, form a
watershed
between two major river systems, the Mo Chhu and the
Drangme Chhu
(chhu means river). Peaks in the Black Mountains
range
between 1,500 meters and 2,700 meters above sea level, and
the
fast-flowing rivers have carved out spectacular gorges in
the lower
mountain areas. The woodlands of the central region
provide most of
Bhutan's valuable forest production. Eastern Bhutan is
divided by
another southward spur, the Donga Range. Western Bhutan
has
fertile, cultivated valleys and terraced river basins.
In the south, the Southern Hills, or Siwalik Hills, the
foothills of the Himalayas, are covered with dense
deciduous
forest, alluvial lowland river valleys, and mountains that
reach to
around 1,500 meters above sea level. The foothills descend
into the
subtropical Duars Plain. Most of the Duars Plain proper is
located
in India, and ten to fifteen kilometers penetrate inside
Bhutan.
The Bhutan Duars has two parts. The northern Duars, which
abuts the
Himalayan foothills, has rugged, slopping terrain and dry
porous
soil with dense vegetation and abundant wildlife. The
southern
Duars has moderately fertile soil, heavy savanna grass,
dense mixed
jungle, and freshwater springs. Taken as a whole, the
Duars
provides the greatest amount of fertile flatlands in
Bhutan. Rice
and other crops are grown on the plains and mountainsides
up to
1,200 meters. Bhutan's most important commercial centers--
Phuntsholing, Geylegphug, and Samdrup Jongkhar--are
located in the
Duars, reflecting the meaning of the name, which is
derived from
the Hindi dwar and means gateway. Rhinoceros,
tigers,
leopards, elephants, and other wildlife inhabit the
region.
Data as of September 1991
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