Chitral District

Chitral ( Urdu ریاست چترال ) is now a district in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province with its capital in Chitral. It borders on the special territory of Gilgit -Baltistan Gilgit with the capital.

Chitral was once an independent princely state in the Hindu Kush in northern India.

Geography

The area is located on a mountain plateau, which is very difficult to access. The district Chitral is one of the most remote areas of the world, because it is accessible year-round only intermittently over four mountain passes or through the Kunar Valley of Afghanistan Jalalabad. All passports to Chitral are over 3000 m above sea level and are not passable in winter months. The four passes are the Dorah Pass and the Broghol Pass, leading to the Wakhan corridor to Afghanistan, while only the Lovari Pass to Peshawar and the Shandur Pass to Gilgit connect in Pakistan. In the spring of 2010, the 8.6 km long Lovari tunnel to be completed, which then provides a weather connection.

The region is very dry, as the Pamir Mountains keeps the monsoon rains. Through the district of Chitral river flows from Afghanistan in the Kunar Valley.

The size of Chitral is unofficially stated with 14,850 km ². The settlements are located along the fertile valleys of Chitral River and still live there no more than 320,000 people. On the few arable land grazing and farming is operated.

History

In 1947, the state Chitral Pakistan joined in 1969 and eventually became permanently integrated.