Doon Valley

For a valley in Scotland, see Cumnock and Doon Valley.

Doon Valley, Dehradun, 1850s

The Doon Valley is an unusually wide, long valley within the Shivalik Hills in the Lower Himalayas, in the state of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, India. Within the valley lies the city of Dehradun, the capital of Uttarakhand state.

Etymology

Doon or Dun (Template:Lang-hi) is a local word for valley, particularly an open valley in the Shivaliks or between the Shivaliks and higher Himalayan foothills. Other valleys in this region have names like Patli Dun, Kothri Dun, Pinjore Dun in Himachal. Such valleys are termed Inner Terai in Nepal. Doon Valley runs 75 km long from west to east.

Geography

The Doon valley lies between two intermittent ranges of the Himalayas. It is bounded on all sides by mountains, with one range running from the west to the east (with Mussorie at the centre) in a semi-circular arc; and one running at the south from Poanta Sahib to Haridwar. The valley also forms a watershed between the Yamuna and Ganges river systems. In fact the Yamuna and Ganges are closest to each other as they pass the Doon valley, with the Yamuna forming the western boundary and the Ganges the east.

Important areas

Rajaji National Park, Kalesar National Park and Jaunsar-Bawar region lie within the valley as well.

Towns

In Uttarakhand:

• Dehradun
• Dehradun Cantonment
• Clement Town
• FRI and College Area
• Raipur
• Vikasnagar
• Sahaspur
• Herbertpur
• Dakpathar
• Doiwala
• Rishikesh
• Dhalwala
• Muni Ki Reti
• Virbhadra
• Pratitnagar

In Himachal Pradesh:

• Paonta Sahib

See also

• List of valleys of India
• Inner Terai Valleys of Nepal

Further reading

• The Doon valley across the years, by Ganesh Saili. Publisher: Rupa & Co., 2007.

External links

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)