Geography

Shiwaliks

Also: Siwaliks, Siwalik hills, Outer Himalaya, Sub-Himalaya

Definition

The Shiwaliks are the outermost and youngest range of the Himalaya, a low belt of hills about 600 to 1,500 m high formed from river sediments eroded from the rising mountains, stretching from the Indus to the Brahmaputra along the northern edge of the plains.

Summary card: Shiwaliks. Outermost and youngest range of the Himalaya. Heights mostly about 600–1,500 m. Made of sandstone, clay and conglomerate laid by rivers. Longitudinal valleys called duns, such as Dehradun. Famous for rich vertebrate fossils of the past 20 million years — Summary card © UPSCPrep.in

Background and evolution

The Himalaya is usually divided into three parallel ranges: the Greater Himalaya (Himadri), the Lesser Himalaya (Himachal) and the Outer Himalaya, known as the Shiwaliks. As the Indian plate pushed into Asia and the higher ranges rose, rivers carried enormous loads of gravel, sand and silt down to the foreland, where they piled up in thick layers. Continued compression later folded and lifted these sediments themselves, creating the Shiwalik hills. Because their rocks are mostly loose and poorly cemented, the hills erode easily, and they are the youngest part of the mountain system, rising mainly in the last few million years.

The name comes from the Shivalik hills near Haridwar and is linked with Shiva. The range is widest in Himachal Pradesh and Punjab and narrows eastwards; it is nearly absent for some distance in parts of the east, and is known by local names such as the Jammu hills, Dafla, Miri, Abor and Mishmi hills in Arunachal Pradesh. Nineteenth-century geologists such as Hugh Falconer and Proby Cautley found remarkable fossils of elephants, hippos, giraffes, apes and other animals in the Shiwalik rocks, making them a key site for studying the evolution of mammals.

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Last reviewed: 23 October 2026 · Original UPSCPrep.in content.