WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.700 You know, usually when we look at a map, we focus 00:00:02.700 --> 00:00:05.120 entirely on the lines drawn by people. Right. 00:00:05.120 --> 00:00:07.559 The borders and highways. Exactly. The little 00:00:07.559 --> 00:00:10.419 dots that represent our cities. We treat geography 00:00:10.419 --> 00:00:13.560 like it's just a flat piece of paper that we 00:00:13.560 --> 00:00:15.900 happen to build our lives on top of. It's remarkably 00:00:15.900 --> 00:00:19.120 easy to do that. Yeah. To view the landscape 00:00:19.120 --> 00:00:22.620 as this passive blank canvas just sitting there 00:00:22.620 --> 00:00:25.039 waiting for human history to happen to it. And 00:00:25.039 --> 00:00:27.359 that is the grand illusion, I think. We assume 00:00:27.359 --> 00:00:29.800 we're the primary forces shaping the world. But 00:00:29.800 --> 00:00:32.179 then you zoom in on certain parts of the globe, 00:00:32.299 --> 00:00:34.700 and suddenly you realize the map isn't flat at 00:00:34.700 --> 00:00:37.539 all. Oh, not even close. It is violently three 00:00:37.539 --> 00:00:39.880 -dimensional. You find places where the Earth 00:00:39.880 --> 00:00:43.259 itself has built walls so massive, so imposing, 00:00:43.500 --> 00:00:45.439 that they dictate absolutely everything that 00:00:45.439 --> 00:00:48.060 happens inside them. Which brings us to today's 00:00:48.060 --> 00:00:50.840 topic. Right. Today, for this deep dive, we are 00:00:50.840 --> 00:00:53.700 pulling from a stack of geographic and encyclopedia 00:00:53.700 --> 00:00:56.380 sources to strip away the political maps you're 00:00:56.380 --> 00:00:58.920 used to seeing on the news. We wanted to look 00:00:58.920 --> 00:01:01.619 at the physical, literal reality of a place you 00:01:01.619 --> 00:01:04.079 have absolutely heard of, the Kashmir Valley. 00:01:04.519 --> 00:01:07.799 Also known as the Vale of Kashmir. And it is 00:01:07.799 --> 00:01:10.200 vital to establish right at the top what we mean 00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:12.200 when we say that. Because terminology in this 00:01:12.200 --> 00:01:14.180 part of the world carries a lot of weight. It 00:01:14.180 --> 00:01:16.299 really does. So just to give you the strictly 00:01:16.299 --> 00:01:20.609 geopolitical context. As defined neutrally by 00:01:20.609 --> 00:01:23.609 our encyclopedia sources today, the Kashmir Valley 00:01:23.609 --> 00:01:26.609 is an intermontane valley located in the northern 00:01:26.609 --> 00:01:28.950 part of Indian -administered Jammu and Kashmir. 00:01:29.530 --> 00:01:31.890 And we have to note that the wider Kashmir region 00:01:31.890 --> 00:01:34.670 has been the subject of a dispute between India 00:01:34.670 --> 00:01:37.049 and Pakistan ever since the partition of the 00:01:37.049 --> 00:01:40.909 Indian subcontinent in 1947. Exactly. And furthermore, 00:01:40.989 --> 00:01:43.069 the sources state that China became active in 00:01:43.069 --> 00:01:46.329 the eastern area of Kashmir in the 1950s, and 00:01:46.329 --> 00:01:48.290 they currently control the northeastern part 00:01:48.290 --> 00:01:52.349 of Ladakh. So that is the complex political reality 00:01:52.349 --> 00:01:54.290 on the ground, impartially speaking. Yeah, we're 00:01:54.290 --> 00:01:55.829 not taking any sides here. We just want to give 00:01:55.829 --> 00:01:57.569 you the facts and the sources so you know the 00:01:57.569 --> 00:02:00.659 layout. And while it's a region defined by complex 00:02:00.659 --> 00:02:03.620 human borders, certainly to really understand 00:02:03.620 --> 00:02:05.859 this place, to understand why it's so historically 00:02:05.859 --> 00:02:08.599 and strategically significant, we have to look 00:02:08.599 --> 00:02:11.599 beneath those human lines. Beneath the politics. 00:02:12.039 --> 00:02:14.699 Exactly. Understanding this complex region starts 00:02:14.699 --> 00:02:18.139 with understanding its literal foundation. It's 00:02:18.139 --> 00:02:20.620 a it's fascinating geography. OK, let's unpack 00:02:20.620 --> 00:02:23.219 this because the topography here is staggering. 00:02:23.419 --> 00:02:26.439 I mean, imagine a massive high altitude bowl. 00:02:26.800 --> 00:02:30.379 Or really, a geological fortress, perfectly positioned 00:02:30.379 --> 00:02:32.680 high up in the mountains. Yeah. Intermontane 00:02:32.680 --> 00:02:35.199 is the technical term the sources use. Literally 00:02:35.199 --> 00:02:37.300 translated, it means between the mountains. And 00:02:37.300 --> 00:02:39.039 what mountains they are. This bowl we're talking 00:02:39.039 --> 00:02:42.680 about is huge. It's roughly 135 kilometers long 00:02:42.680 --> 00:02:46.280 and 32 kilometers wide. That's massive. It is. 00:02:46.419 --> 00:02:49.139 That's over 15 ,000 square kilometers of area 00:02:49.139 --> 00:02:52.240 inside this fortress. But here's the kicker. 00:02:52.879 --> 00:02:55.289 The floor of this valley. like the bottom of 00:02:55.289 --> 00:02:58.849 the bowl, sits at an average elevation of 1 ,850 00:02:58.849 --> 00:03:01.389 meters. Which is about 6 ,070 feet above sea 00:03:01.389 --> 00:03:03.710 level. Yeah. You are starting at an elevation 00:03:03.710 --> 00:03:06.189 higher than Denver, Colorado, just standing on 00:03:06.189 --> 00:03:08.090 the completely flat ground of the valley floor. 00:03:08.349 --> 00:03:10.810 Right, but it's what surrounds that flat ground 00:03:10.810 --> 00:03:13.430 that turns it into a true fortress. The walls. 00:03:13.740 --> 00:03:16.180 The walls, exactly. To the northeast, you have 00:03:16.180 --> 00:03:20.560 the Great Himalayas. These absolute giants physically 00:03:20.560 --> 00:03:23.379 separate the valley from the Tibetan Plateau. 00:03:23.379 --> 00:03:26.240 Wow. And then sweeping around the west and the 00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:28.520 south, you have the Pure Punjab Range, which 00:03:28.520 --> 00:03:30.699 separates the valley from the Punjab Plain down 00:03:30.699 --> 00:03:33.099 below. And the average elevation of the Pure 00:03:33.099 --> 00:03:35.860 Punjab Range is 10 ,000 feet. That's just the 00:03:35.860 --> 00:03:38.900 average. Just the average. With some peaks like 00:03:38.900 --> 00:03:41.879 Kolhoi Peak or Sunset Peak going significantly 00:03:41.879 --> 00:03:44.099 higher. So you're standing at 6 ,000 feet and 00:03:44.099 --> 00:03:46.360 the walls around you shoot up another 4 ,000 00:03:46.360 --> 00:03:50.180 to 8 ,000 feet of sheer rock. Exactly. See, this 00:03:50.180 --> 00:03:52.060 is where the physics of it start to break my 00:03:52.060 --> 00:03:53.919 brain a little bit. I'm trying to visualize this. 00:03:54.539 --> 00:03:57.719 How did a perfectly flat valley over 80 miles 00:03:57.719 --> 00:04:00.879 long end up trapped between these massive jagged 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:03.139 mountain ranges? That's a great question. Because 00:04:03.139 --> 00:04:05.009 mountains are usually pointy everywhere. You 00:04:05.009 --> 00:04:07.669 know, they don't normally form perfect flat -bottom 00:04:07.669 --> 00:04:09.870 stadium 6 ,000 feet in the air. No, they don't. 00:04:09.930 --> 00:04:13.189 It comes down to two highly destructive geological 00:04:13.189 --> 00:04:15.870 forces folding and faulting. You have to imagine 00:04:15.870 --> 00:04:19.470 the Himalayan mountain chain as the site of this 00:04:19.470 --> 00:04:22.850 slow -motion ancient tectonic collision. The 00:04:22.850 --> 00:04:25.430 Indian subcontinent was forcefully thrust into 00:04:25.430 --> 00:04:27.370 the rest of Asia. Right, so continental plates 00:04:27.370 --> 00:04:30.279 are slamming into each other. But why did that 00:04:30.279 --> 00:04:32.480 leave a depression in the middle? Why didn't 00:04:32.480 --> 00:04:35.920 the crust just smash upward into one giant jagged 00:04:35.920 --> 00:04:38.139 peak? So think of the crumple zones on a car 00:04:38.139 --> 00:04:41.519 during a crash. Oh, right. The front and back 00:04:41.519 --> 00:04:44.819 of the car crash, buckle and fold to absorb the 00:04:44.819 --> 00:04:47.639 violent impact. But the passenger cabin in the 00:04:47.639 --> 00:04:50.620 middle is engineered to remain a relatively intact 00:04:50.620 --> 00:04:54.339 hollow space when those tectonic plates collided. 00:04:54.490 --> 00:04:57.649 The earth buckled and folded over itself, pushing 00:04:57.649 --> 00:05:00.069 up the Great Himalayas on one side and the Pierponjaul 00:05:00.069 --> 00:05:01.730 on the other. So those are the crumple zones. 00:05:01.910 --> 00:05:04.329 Exactly. But in the midst of that violent buckling, 00:05:04.990 --> 00:05:07.750 massive blocks of rock faulted meaning they cracked 00:05:07.750 --> 00:05:10.649 and shifted downward. Wait, downward? Yeah. The 00:05:10.649 --> 00:05:12.430 Cashmere Valley is essentially that passenger 00:05:12.430 --> 00:05:14.769 cabin. It's a structural basin formed within 00:05:14.769 --> 00:05:18.129 that buckling process, running northwest to southeast, 00:05:18.529 --> 00:05:20.029 right along the strike of the mountain chain. 00:05:20.410 --> 00:05:23.079 Okay, that explains the bowl shape. But it still 00:05:23.079 --> 00:05:25.920 doesn't explain the flat floor. I mean, a cracked 00:05:25.920 --> 00:05:28.139 block of granite dropping down during an ancient 00:05:28.139 --> 00:05:31.019 earthquake doesn't sound like a nice, smooth 00:05:31.019 --> 00:05:32.959 place to build a city. You're absolutely right. 00:05:33.139 --> 00:05:35.939 It wasn't flat initially. It was a rugged, rocky, 00:05:36.240 --> 00:05:39.480 uneven depression. So what happened? Over millions 00:05:39.480 --> 00:05:42.220 of years, water completely changed the landscape. 00:05:42.480 --> 00:05:45.040 The towering mountains trapped massive amounts 00:05:45.040 --> 00:05:48.500 of water, turning that entire basin into a gigantic 00:05:48.500 --> 00:05:50.980 ancient lake. Wait, the whole bowl was filled 00:05:50.980 --> 00:05:54.100 with water? It was. For millennia, glacier streams 00:05:54.100 --> 00:05:56.560 flowed down the mountain walls, carrying silt, 00:05:56.699 --> 00:05:59.879 clay, and gravel, and they dumped all that sediment 00:05:59.879 --> 00:06:01.959 directly into the lake. Like a giant settling 00:06:01.959 --> 00:06:05.019 tank? Yes, exactly. Over incredibly long periods 00:06:05.019 --> 00:06:07.339 of time, that sediment settled to the bottom, 00:06:07.519 --> 00:06:10.040 layer by layer, filling in all the jagged cracks 00:06:10.040 --> 00:06:12.430 and crevices of the faulted rock. Geologists 00:06:12.430 --> 00:06:14.629 actually refer to these ancient lake deposits 00:06:14.629 --> 00:06:17.649 as the carry was. So the flat floor we see today 00:06:17.649 --> 00:06:19.670 is actually the perfectly smooth that bottom 00:06:19.670 --> 00:06:23.009 of a prehistoric lake. It is. Eventually, the 00:06:23.009 --> 00:06:25.430 water breached the mountain walls, the ancient 00:06:25.430 --> 00:06:29.870 lake drained, and it left behind this incredible, 00:06:30.350 --> 00:06:34.189 fertile, totally flat floodplain sitting roughly 00:06:34.189 --> 00:06:36.629 6 ,000 feet up in the sky. Wow. Here's where 00:06:36.629 --> 00:06:39.040 it gets really interesting. Because when you 00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:42.379 look at other rugged high -altitude parts of 00:06:42.379 --> 00:06:46.339 the wider Kashmir region like places like Ladakh 00:06:46.339 --> 00:06:49.759 They are sparsely populated right? It's a tough 00:06:49.759 --> 00:06:52.480 extreme environment up there exactly, but the 00:06:52.480 --> 00:06:55.220 Kashmir Valley It is densely populated you have 00:06:55.220 --> 00:06:57.839 major cities packed with life you do if this 00:06:57.839 --> 00:07:00.199 place is a locked Geological fortress surrounded 00:07:00.199 --> 00:07:03.600 by 10 ,000 -foot walls. How is an entire civilization 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:06.259 thriving inside it? It relies on the exact same 00:07:06.259 --> 00:07:08.279 mechanism that created that flat valley floor 00:07:08.279 --> 00:07:10.740 in the first place, water. The valley is ringed 00:07:10.740 --> 00:07:13.120 by massive mountains that catch heavy snow and 00:07:13.120 --> 00:07:16.199 form glaciers. When that ice melts, gravity dictates 00:07:16.199 --> 00:07:17.779 it has to go somewhere. So you're looking at 00:07:17.779 --> 00:07:19.899 the topography maps in our sources. I was initially 00:07:19.899 --> 00:07:22.319 really confused by this. You have massive glaciers 00:07:22.319 --> 00:07:24.819 melting on all sides of this bowl, dumping water 00:07:24.819 --> 00:07:26.980 into a trapped depression. Why doesn't the valley 00:07:26.980 --> 00:07:28.860 just turn right back in? into that permanent 00:07:28.860 --> 00:07:32.100 ancient lake. How is it draining? It drains because 00:07:32.100 --> 00:07:35.939 of one primary artery, the Jellum River. Ah. 00:07:36.040 --> 00:07:38.379 The Jellum acts as the central gutter system 00:07:38.379 --> 00:07:40.779 for the entire Cashmere Valley. That makes so 00:07:40.779 --> 00:07:43.259 much more sense. The valley acts like a giant 00:07:43.259 --> 00:07:45.910 sloping rain catcher. Yeah. And the Jellum. is 00:07:45.910 --> 00:07:48.670 the central drain. Precisely. So all these glacier 00:07:48.670 --> 00:07:50.930 -fed tributaries, the sources mention the Litter, 00:07:51.089 --> 00:07:53.689 the Sind, and the Dudeganga rivers. They all 00:07:53.689 --> 00:07:56.389 rush down the sheer mountain walls. But instead 00:07:56.389 --> 00:07:59.029 of just pooling up on the flat ground, they feed 00:07:59.029 --> 00:08:01.290 directly into the Chellum. And as the Chellum 00:08:01.290 --> 00:08:04.709 flows northwest across the valley floor, it dictates 00:08:04.709 --> 00:08:07.610 where people can live, farm, and build. It's 00:08:07.610 --> 00:08:10.470 the lifeblood. It really is. It originates at 00:08:10.470 --> 00:08:13.050 a spring called Vernegg. And from there, it just 00:08:13.050 --> 00:08:15.689 gathers immense volume and speed. it moves. It 00:08:15.689 --> 00:08:17.509 actually flows right through Srinagar, right? 00:08:17.870 --> 00:08:19.550 Which is the summer capital and the largest city 00:08:19.550 --> 00:08:21.649 in the valley. It does, yes. But even with a 00:08:21.649 --> 00:08:23.850 river moving the water, if you get a heavy spring 00:08:23.850 --> 00:08:26.709 snow melt from the Himalayas, wouldn't that central 00:08:26.709 --> 00:08:29.509 gutter just overflow and flood the flat ground? 00:08:29.829 --> 00:08:32.230 Well, it would if it weren't for the valley's 00:08:32.230 --> 00:08:35.490 natural pressure release valves. The geolum feeds 00:08:35.490 --> 00:08:38.289 directly into Woolar Lake. Which is the second 00:08:38.289 --> 00:08:41.240 largest freshwater lake in all of Asia. sitting 00:08:41.240 --> 00:08:43.440 right there inside this mountain bowl. Exactly. 00:08:43.919 --> 00:08:46.639 Wooler Lake acts as a massive natural sponge. 00:08:46.909 --> 00:08:49.269 Oh, I see. When the snowmelt rushes down from 00:08:49.269 --> 00:08:52.490 the mountains, the lake expands. It absorbs the 00:08:52.490 --> 00:08:55.289 excess water volume and regulates the flow of 00:08:55.289 --> 00:08:58.190 the jellum downstream. It essentially prevents 00:08:58.190 --> 00:09:00.409 the river from devastating the valley floor. 00:09:00.509 --> 00:09:02.490 That's incredible. So the river hits the lake, 00:09:02.870 --> 00:09:05.330 slows down, deposits its sediment, and the lake 00:09:05.330 --> 00:09:07.370 manages the water level. Exactly right. Then 00:09:07.370 --> 00:09:09.870 the jellum continues on, passing by the towns 00:09:09.870 --> 00:09:12.549 of Sopor and Baramulla until it finally hits 00:09:12.549 --> 00:09:14.509 the edge of the bowl. And this is the part that 00:09:14.509 --> 00:09:17.090 fascinated me. How does it get out? It finds 00:09:17.090 --> 00:09:19.590 the single major crack in the fortress walls, 00:09:19.950 --> 00:09:22.690 the Uri Gorge. It violently cuts right through 00:09:22.690 --> 00:09:25.470 the Pir Panjal Range at that gap. It does. I 00:09:25.470 --> 00:09:27.649 mean, if that one narrow gorge were to get blocked 00:09:27.649 --> 00:09:30.610 by a rock slide, the whole 84 -mile bowl would 00:09:30.610 --> 00:09:33.080 just fill back up with water. Yeah, if we connect 00:09:33.080 --> 00:09:35.100 this to the bigger picture, you start to see 00:09:35.100 --> 00:09:37.460 why this geography is essentially a cheat code 00:09:37.460 --> 00:09:40.620 for human civilization. How so? Well, you have 00:09:40.620 --> 00:09:43.559 a massive expanse of incredibly fertile, perfectly 00:09:43.559 --> 00:09:46.980 flat land, thanks to that ancient lake bed. Right. 00:09:47.299 --> 00:09:49.559 You have an abundance of fresh water flowing 00:09:49.559 --> 00:09:52.000 predictably through it, perfectly regulated by 00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:55.860 Wooler Lake. And you have a 10 ,000 foot natural 00:09:55.860 --> 00:09:58.539 fortress wall protecting you from outside forces. 00:09:58.659 --> 00:10:01.909 Wow, yeah. Historically, if you survived the 00:10:01.909 --> 00:10:04.330 treacherous trek through one of the few high 00:10:04.330 --> 00:10:07.389 mountain passes, you emerged into an absolute 00:10:07.389 --> 00:10:10.730 oasis. It is the geographic definition of a sanctuary. 00:10:10.889 --> 00:10:13.149 It really is like finding a secret garden hidden 00:10:13.149 --> 00:10:16.049 at the top of the world. But if this Yilm River 00:10:16.049 --> 00:10:18.509 system is constantly feeding water into this 00:10:18.509 --> 00:10:21.629 enclosed high -altitude bowl, where does all 00:10:21.629 --> 00:10:24.009 that moisture go? That is the big question. Because 00:10:24.009 --> 00:10:26.570 it can't just easily evaporate out and blow away 00:10:26.570 --> 00:10:28.730 if we are trapped behind 10 ,000 -foot walls. 00:10:28.940 --> 00:10:31.080 So what does this all mean for the day -to -day 00:10:31.080 --> 00:10:33.179 experience of the people living inside? Well, 00:10:33.299 --> 00:10:35.700 it means you're living inside a highly sensitive, 00:10:35.700 --> 00:10:38.320 trapped microclimate. The towering Karakoram 00:10:38.320 --> 00:10:41.000 Range to the north, the Pier Panjal to the south 00:10:41.000 --> 00:10:44.279 and west, the Zanskar Range to the east. They 00:10:44.279 --> 00:10:46.700 don't just block invading armies, they block 00:10:46.700 --> 00:10:49.220 weather systems. The source is called the climate 00:10:49.220 --> 00:10:52.519 moderate. But looking at the actual data, it 00:10:52.519 --> 00:10:55.320 seems incredibly unpredictable. Very much so. 00:10:55.820 --> 00:10:57.700 Like moderate feels like a very polite way of 00:10:57.700 --> 00:10:59.820 saying the weather can completely throw you for 00:10:59.820 --> 00:11:03.029 a loop. Yeah, moderate is definitely a dangerous 00:11:03.029 --> 00:11:05.690 word here. Summer days can be mild and warm, 00:11:05.809 --> 00:11:09.029 hovering around maybe 16 to 32 degrees Celsius, 00:11:09.190 --> 00:11:13.169 but the relative humidity stays quite high. Because 00:11:13.169 --> 00:11:15.470 that moisture is physically trapped inside the 00:11:15.470 --> 00:11:18.230 bowl. Exactly. Then winter arrives and the mean 00:11:18.230 --> 00:11:20.649 temperatures plunge. We're talking December and 00:11:20.649 --> 00:11:23.889 January averages between minus 15 to zero degrees 00:11:23.889 --> 00:11:25.889 Celsius. And those are just the averages. The 00:11:25.889 --> 00:11:28.850 extremes inside this bowl are wild. You're dealing 00:11:28.850 --> 00:11:31.909 with record high is hitting 37 .8 degrees Celsius 00:11:31.909 --> 00:11:35.250 and record lows hitting a bitter minus 18 degrees. 00:11:35.389 --> 00:11:37.870 It's intense. You're living in an alpine environment 00:11:37.870 --> 00:11:40.990 but growing crops on flat ground. And because 00:11:40.990 --> 00:11:43.870 you're dealing with a sealed environment, when 00:11:43.870 --> 00:11:47.330 an atmospheric anomaly hits, it hits with devastating 00:11:47.330 --> 00:11:50.070 force. There's nowhere for the extreme weather 00:11:50.070 --> 00:11:52.799 to dissipate. The sources highlighted a specific 00:11:52.799 --> 00:11:55.379 event that illustrates this perfectly. Let's 00:11:55.379 --> 00:11:59.139 look at January 2012. Oh yes. For years leading 00:11:59.139 --> 00:12:02.019 up to this, the valley had actually seen relatively 00:12:02.019 --> 00:12:05.399 little snowfall. People were adapting to milder, 00:12:05.539 --> 00:12:08.860 drier winters. And then, over just two days, 00:12:09.039 --> 00:12:12.080 January 5th and 6th, the microclimate snapped. 00:12:12.330 --> 00:12:15.309 A massive winter storm managed to crest the mountains, 00:12:15.570 --> 00:12:17.830 rolled down into the basin, and just stalled. 00:12:18.210 --> 00:12:21.649 It blanketed this densely populated area in a 00:12:21.649 --> 00:12:24.570 punishing thick layer of snow and ice. It totally 00:12:24.570 --> 00:12:26.590 shocked the valley. It's a stark reminder that 00:12:26.590 --> 00:12:28.769 even with all that flat fertile ground, you are 00:12:28.769 --> 00:12:31.210 entirely at the mercy of the high Himalayas. 00:12:31.429 --> 00:12:33.450 Absolutely. But what's fascinating here is that 00:12:33.450 --> 00:12:35.750 the climate isn't just a static force that acts 00:12:35.750 --> 00:12:37.750 upon the people. What do you mean? The geography 00:12:37.750 --> 00:12:39.669 of the valley is so sensitive that the people 00:12:39.669 --> 00:12:41.940 are actually changing the climate back. Now, 00:12:42.220 --> 00:12:44.059 this is the part of the sources that completely 00:12:44.059 --> 00:12:47.259 caught me off guard. You hear so much these days 00:12:47.259 --> 00:12:49.879 about global temperatures rising, regions drying 00:12:49.879 --> 00:12:52.980 up, humidity dropping. Sure. But according to 00:12:52.980 --> 00:12:55.960 the meteorological data, the Kashmir Valley is 00:12:55.960 --> 00:12:58.639 experiencing the exact opposite. It's actually 00:12:58.639 --> 00:13:01.320 getting wetter. It is. The relative humidity 00:13:01.320 --> 00:13:03.840 and annual precipitation have measurably increased 00:13:03.840 --> 00:13:06.879 in recent years. Why is it getting wetter? It's 00:13:06.879 --> 00:13:09.620 directly tied to human influence. specifically 00:13:09.620 --> 00:13:12.480 commercial afforestation projects. Wait, wait. 00:13:12.480 --> 00:13:14.840 I have to push back on that. Go ahead. I understand 00:13:14.840 --> 00:13:17.639 that planting trees helps soil erosion, and sure, 00:13:17.720 --> 00:13:20.220 a forest holds a little moisture. Yeah. But we 00:13:20.220 --> 00:13:22.879 are talking about a 15 ,000 square kilometer 00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:25.720 valley. Are you saying planting some commercial 00:13:25.720 --> 00:13:28.879 forests is literally powerful enough to reverse 00:13:28.879 --> 00:13:31.980 a global drying trend and change the macro weather 00:13:31.980 --> 00:13:34.139 of a massive geographical region? I am, yeah. 00:13:34.409 --> 00:13:37.070 because of the specific mechanics of an intermontane 00:13:37.070 --> 00:13:39.090 basin. Okay, explain that. Let's look at how 00:13:39.090 --> 00:13:41.649 transpiration works. Trees pull water up from 00:13:41.649 --> 00:13:44.250 the soil and they release it into the air through 00:13:44.250 --> 00:13:46.750 their leaves as water vapor. Right, standard 00:13:46.750 --> 00:13:50.730 biology. If you plant a million trees on a flat 00:13:50.730 --> 00:13:54.299 open plain That water vapor just blows away on 00:13:54.299 --> 00:13:57.059 the prevailing winds. The regional impact is 00:13:57.059 --> 00:13:59.539 completely diluted. Right. It disperses into 00:13:59.539 --> 00:14:01.700 the global atmosphere. But we aren't on an open 00:14:01.700 --> 00:14:05.340 plain. We are in a 10 ,000 foot deep bowl. Oh, 00:14:05.340 --> 00:14:07.919 wow. Precisely. The Pierponjol and the Great 00:14:07.919 --> 00:14:11.059 Himalayas act as physical atmospheric barriers. 00:14:11.500 --> 00:14:14.419 They literally trap that transpired moisture 00:14:14.419 --> 00:14:17.240 inside the valley. So it can't blow away. Exactly. 00:14:17.340 --> 00:14:19.120 The more parks you build, the more commercial 00:14:19.120 --> 00:14:21.639 forests you plant, the more water vapor gets 00:14:21.639 --> 00:14:24.659 pumped into that trapped bubble of air. The relative 00:14:24.659 --> 00:14:27.419 humidity of the entire basin goes up. And eventually 00:14:27.419 --> 00:14:30.460 what goes up must come down. Exactly right. That 00:14:30.460 --> 00:14:33.139 trapped highly human air eventually hits the 00:14:33.139 --> 00:14:35.159 freezing high altitude slopes of the surrounding 00:14:35.159 --> 00:14:38.360 mountains. It condenses, turns into heavy clouds, 00:14:38.419 --> 00:14:40.659 and falls back down onto the valley floor as 00:14:40.659 --> 00:14:42.980 increased rain and snow. That is incredible. 00:14:43.100 --> 00:14:45.559 They're literally terraforming their own microclimate. 00:14:45.580 --> 00:14:48.340 They are. By expanding these green spaces, the 00:14:48.340 --> 00:14:49.799 people in the valley are breathing more moisture 00:14:49.799 --> 00:14:52.250 into the air. The massive mountain walls catch 00:14:52.250 --> 00:14:55.129 it and it rains right back down into the Jehelum 00:14:55.129 --> 00:14:58.730 River gutter system. It is a perfect self -contained 00:14:58.730 --> 00:15:01.789 feedback loop. It perfectly illustrates just 00:15:01.789 --> 00:15:04.529 how delicate and responsive this geography is. 00:15:05.109 --> 00:15:08.690 Every single input is magnified because there's 00:15:08.690 --> 00:15:10.950 nowhere for the effects to escape to. That makes 00:15:10.950 --> 00:15:13.629 total sense. The geographic isolation that protects 00:15:13.629 --> 00:15:16.789 the valley is the exact same mechanism that traps 00:15:16.789 --> 00:15:19.549 its climate and amplifies the effects of whatever 00:15:19.549 --> 00:15:22.470 happens inside. It's like a terrarium, you know. 00:15:22.789 --> 00:15:25.070 You put a lid on a glass jar with some plants 00:15:25.070 --> 00:15:27.409 and a little water inside and it creates its 00:15:27.409 --> 00:15:30.070 own closed -loop weather system. That is a very 00:15:30.070 --> 00:15:32.029 apt way to look at it, yeah. The Kashmir Valley 00:15:32.029 --> 00:15:35.149 is just a 15 ,000 square kilometer terrarium 00:15:35.149 --> 00:15:36.870 built out of Himalayan rock. The environment 00:15:36.870 --> 00:15:39.450 is entirely self -referential. So let's step 00:15:39.450 --> 00:15:41.509 back and look at the whole picture. When you 00:15:41.509 --> 00:15:43.629 look at the Kashmir Valley, you're not just looking 00:15:43.629 --> 00:15:46.250 at a disputed line on a geopolitical map. No, 00:15:46.269 --> 00:15:48.809 not at all. You're looking at a geological fortress. 00:15:49.580 --> 00:15:52.500 A structural basin created millions of years 00:15:52.500 --> 00:15:55.360 ago by the violent crumple zone of a continental 00:15:55.360 --> 00:15:58.639 collision and smoothed out by the sediment of 00:15:58.639 --> 00:16:01.960 an ancient lake. It is a sanctuary uniquely sustained 00:16:01.960 --> 00:16:04.799 by a network of massive glaciers feeding into 00:16:04.799 --> 00:16:07.940 the Wooler Lake sponge and draining out the single 00:16:07.940 --> 00:16:11.159 vital crack of the Uri Gorge. And it's a fortress 00:16:11.159 --> 00:16:13.519 with a highly sensitive trapped microclimate. 00:16:13.600 --> 00:16:16.000 A place where a sudden winter storm can shock 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:18.379 millions. And where the simple act of planting 00:16:18.379 --> 00:16:20.820 Crees can measurably increase the rainfall of 00:16:20.820 --> 00:16:23.240 an entire region. It's amazing. It fundamentally 00:16:23.240 --> 00:16:25.620 changes how you view the landscape. It's not 00:16:25.620 --> 00:16:29.039 a static canvas. It is an active breathing participant 00:16:29.039 --> 00:16:31.409 in the lives of everyone who lives there. This 00:16:31.409 --> 00:16:34.269 raises an important question, though. If local 00:16:34.269 --> 00:16:36.570 actions like simply planting trees and expanding 00:16:36.570 --> 00:16:39.309 parks can measurably increase the humidity and 00:16:39.309 --> 00:16:41.590 precipitation of an entire enclosed mountain 00:16:41.590 --> 00:16:44.690 valley, how might the continued human development 00:16:44.690 --> 00:16:47.850 of this densely populated bowl permanently reshape 00:16:47.850 --> 00:16:50.289 its ancient, delicate microclimate in the years 00:16:50.289 --> 00:16:52.669 to come? That is definitely something to ponder. 00:16:52.809 --> 00:16:54.649 It really makes you think about our impact, even 00:16:54.649 --> 00:16:57.669 in a fortress of stone. Keep questioning the 00:16:57.669 --> 00:17:00.169 maps, keep digging into the geography, and most 00:17:00.169 --> 00:17:02.629 importantly, keep learning. Catch you next time.