✅Hindu Kush Himalayas is a mountain range stretching over 3500 kilometres and across eight countries i.e., Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, Myanmar and Pakistan.
✅It is home to all of the world’s peaks above 7,000 metres.
✅Glaciers: HKH has one of the largest volumes of ice and snow outside of the Arctic and Antarctica due to which it is often referred to as the Third Pole.
✅Water Tower of Asia: It is called the ‘Water Tower of Asia’ as it is an important source of water for 12 river basins, including 10 major (transboundary) rivers:
the Amu Darya, Brahmaputra, Ganges, Indus, Irrawaddy, Mekong, Salween, Tarim, Yangtse, and Yellow (Huang He).
✅They flow through 16 countries in Asia and provide freshwater services to 240 million people living in the HKH region and 1.65 billion downstream.
Ecology: It is home to 330 bird and biodiversity areas, including four global biodiversity hotspots i.e., Himalayas, Indo-Burma, mountains of Southwest China, and mountains of Central Asia
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