Himachal Pradesh India Information

Himachal Pradesh has been inhabited by human beings since the dawn of civilization.  About million years ago the foot hills of Himachal Pradesh were inhabited by people from the Indus valley civilization which flourished between 2250 and 1750Bc.  The people of the Indus valley civilization pushed out the original inhabitations, which came and settled in what is now Himachal Pradesh.

According to the Mahabharata, the present day state is made up of number of small publics.  Later the region came under the rule of the Gupta Empire and after its collapse the Mughals ruled here.   In fact the chiefs of the region and the Mughals had made some joint settlements.  Ranjit Singh conquered some parts if area during the 19th century.  The Gorkhas were in power for a while until the British subjugated the Gorkha tribe and conquered some parts of the region.  After independence Himachal Pradesh came into being as a Union Territory when more the 30 princely states were integrated in 1948.  In 1966, the hilly areas of Punjab were merged with the state by increasing its size.  Himachal Pradesh became the 18th state of India on 25th January 1971.

The state of Himachal has boundaries with Jammu and Kashmir in the north, Uttar Pradesh in the South East, China in the East, Haryana in the South and Punjab in the West.  The geography of Himachal Pradesh is very interesting as the state is composed almost entirely of mountains that range from 350 metres to 6975 metres above the sea level.  It is a part of the Indian Himalayas and it has wide valleys imposing snow capped mountains, limpid lakes, rivers and gushing streams.  The state can be divided into three zones.  They are the outer Himalayas or the shivaliks, the inner or the middle Himalayas and the greater Himalayas or the Alpines.  More than half of the state is under thick forest cover.  There are around 1200 species of birds and 359 species of animals in Himachal Pradesh.  There are several major rivers running through the state, including the beas river, which flows though the kullur valley, the Chenab river in the Lahaul and the spiti river which join the Sutlej river in kinnaur.

Himachal Pradesh General Information

Capital
The capital of this state is Shimla.
Districts
There are 12 districts in this state.
Principal Languages
Hindi and Pahari are the languages spoken by this people.
State Bird
This state bird is Western Tragopan.
State Animal
Snow Leopard is this state animal.
State flower
Bell Rhododendron was this state’s flower.