Uttarakhand

Ancient texts call the region Kedarkhand and Manaskhand, the dwelling of Shiva in the Garhwal Himalaya and of Shakti in Kumaon. Katyuri kings ruled from Kartikeyapur between the 7th and 11th centuries, leaving stone temples at Jageshwar and Baijnath, followed by the Chand kings at Champawat and Almora and the Panwar (Shah) dynasty at Tehri-Garhwal. The Gorkha Kingdom of Nepal seized Kumaon and Garhwal from 1803 until the Anglo-Nepalese War and the 1816 Treaty of Sugauli returned them to British India, where they were merged into the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. The Himalayan districts remained sparsely administered forest and hill stations — Dehradun, Nainital and Mussoorie favoured by the British. Post-1947, hill residents felt neglected in the vast Uttar Pradesh, with limited schools, roads and political representation despite supplying water and power to the plains. The Uttarakhand statehood movement surged from 1994, marked most tragically by the Rampur Tiraha firing on 1 October 1994 when activists marching to Delhi were killed. The Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly and Council passed the Reorganisation Bill on 24 September 1998. Two years later Parliament enacted the Uttar Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000, and on 9 November 2000 Uttarakhand became a new state. Renaming to Uttarakhand — preferred by activists as the ancient Puranic term rather than the newer Uttaranchal — was legislated by the Uttaranchal (Alteration of Name) Act, 2006, effective 1 January 2007. Chipko, born here in Chamoli in 1973 when villagers led by Sunderlal Bahuguna, Gaura Devi and Chandi Prasad Bhatt hugged trees to prevent felling, remains a global environmental reference.

Uttarakhand is vertically stacked: from Sharda Sagar Reservoir at about 187 metres on the southern plain to Nanda Devi at 7,817 metres, the state rises over 7,600 metres within 100 km. Three Himalayan belts run east-west — the outer Sub-Himalayan Shivaliks (below 1,500 m), the Middle Himalayas with Mussoorie and Nainital ridges (1,500-3,500 m), and the Great Himalaya with permanent snow, glaciers and peaks above 5,000 m. About 45% is recorded forest, with about 86% hill and mountain. The hydrological gift is unique: the Ganga originates at Gaumukh, terminus of the 30-km Gangotri Glacier, fed by the Alaknanda (from Satopanth) joining at Devprayag where it becomes formally the Ganga; the Yamuna springs at Yamunotri below Bandarpoonch; and tributaries such as the Bhagirathi, Mandakini, Pindar, Kali and Sharda drain every valley. Climate is monsoon alpine: southern districts are humid subtropical with summers over 40°C, while alpine meadows (bugyal) are snow-bound November to March and burst into flowers June to September. Key protected areas define the map. Jim Corbett National Park, established in 1936 as Hailey National Park — India's first — shelters tigers, elephants and gharials across the Shivalik-bhabar terai. Rajaji Tiger Reserve guards elephant corridors near Haridwar. Nanda Devi National Park and Valley of Flowers National Park, jointly a UNESCO double World Heritage Site (Nanda Devi 1988, Valley of Flowers within it 2005), protect high Himalayan meadows blazing with Brahma kamal (state flower) and the alpine musk deer. About 70% of the state is forested or alpine pasture, with rhododendron forests (buransh is the state tree) colouring April.

Uttarakhand's identity is pilgrimage and mountain resilience. The Char Dham circuit of Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath (one of the twelve Jyotirlingas at 3,583 m) and Badrinath (at 3,300 m) draws millions who follow the clockwise river route each summer; Haridwar's Kumbh Mela, held at the ghat where the Ganga debouches to the plains, and nearby Rishikesh, now the global yoga capital, extend the spiritual corridor. The legacy of Chipko — the 1973 movement in Chamoli where villagers, notably Gaura Devi's group of women at Reni village, physically embraced trees to stop loggers — informs a strong conservation ethic taught in schools. Languages mirror divisions: Hindi is the principal official language, while Sanskrit — added in 2010 making Uttarakhand the first state to grant it second official status — links liturgy; Garhwali (about 23% speakers), Kumaoni (about 20%), Jaunsari (about 1.3%) and Tibetan-Bhotia dialects are home languages. Folk art includes wall musepaintings of Aipan (geometric rice-paste designs for festivals), wood carving at temples, and weave traditions. Music and dance are narrative: Jagars (ballads invoking departed spirits), Chholiya war dance with swords during weddings in Kumaon, Langvir Nritya acrobatic dance on bamboo poles in Tehri, and Barada Nati are performed at village melas. Cuisine is hardy and pulses-based — chainsoo, kaafuli, ghat ki dal, mandua roti and bal mithai from Almora — designed for cold labor. Sanskrit exposure appears on official signboards alongside Hindi, a rare practice nationally.