The mountain environment

Mountain slopes are often covered with a kind of forest called montane forest (forest that grows in mountain regions). Conifer trees such as pines, firs, spruce and deodar are common there. Conifers grow tall and cone-shaped, like Christmas trees, with thin, pointed leaves.

Higher up, the trees give way to grasses, mosses and lichen. Climb far enough and the forest simply stops: it is too cold and too windy for trees.

• A moss is a small green plant without flowers or true roots, often spreading like a soft cushion.
• A lichen is a plant-like living thing that usually clings to rocks, walls or trees.

The deep forests, rivers, lakes, grasslands and caves of the mountains are home to many animals, for example the golden eagle, the peregrine falcon, the Canadian lynx, the snow leopard, the ibex, the Himalayan tahr, the mountain hare, the yak, the grey fox and the black bear.

The Ganga is the largest river that starts in the Himalayas. It is nearly 2,500 km long and has many tributaries, that is, other rivers that join it. Some, like the Yamuna and the Ghaghara, also start in the Himalayas. Others, like the Son (or Sone), start in the Vindhya Range, south of the Ganga plain. A tributary flows into a bigger river, never out of it: the Yamuna joins the Ganga, not the other way round.

The book also quotes Kālidāsa, who lived at least 1,500 years ago and is often called the greatest poet of ancient India. His Kumārasambhava opens with the mountains: 'In the north rises Himālaya, the Lord of mountains, like a living god, who measures the Earth and stretches from the western to the eastern oceans.'

'From it the wind comes down, carrying spray from descending Gangā, shaking the deodar trees, opening the peacocks' tail feathers and cooling the mountain people after they hunt deer.' Even 1,500 years ago, the deodar and the Gangā were what a poet thought of when he wanted to say 'mountains'.