Wakhan Corridor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Wakhan Corridor or Wakhan Salient is a narrow, in some places less than 16 kilometres (10 mi) wide, nearly impassable corridor in the Wakhan in the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan. It is located in the Pamir mountain region, with Tajikistan to the north, Pakistan to the south and China to the east. It was created at the end of the 19th century by the British Empire, to act as a buffer against potential Russian ambitions in India during the Great Game. The area has suffered the least during the long years of civil unrest since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.[1]
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[edit] Geography
The Pamir River, flowing out of Lake Zorkul, forms the northern border of the corridor. The Wakhan River passes through the corridor from the east to Kala-i-Panj, joining the Pamir River to become the Panj River.
In the south, the corridor is bounded by the high mountains of the Hindu Kush, crossed by the Broghol pass, the Irshad Pass and the disused Dilisang Pass[2] to Pakistan.
At the eastern border, the Wakhjir is a pass through the Hindu Kush at 4,293 m (14,080 ft), one of the highest in the world[1]. The Wakhjir Pass has the greatest official change of clocks of any international frontier (UTC+4:30 in Afghanistan to UTC+8, China Standard Time, in China)[citation needed]. The border with China is among the highest in the world.
According to the paper by Townsend (2005)[3], the pass "is closed for at least five months a year and is open irregularly for the remainder."
The corridor was once part of the Silk Road, but as a through route has been closed to regular traffic for over 100 years.[1]
[edit] People
The Corridor is sparsely populated, with total population estimated at around 10,600.[1] The main people present in the corridor are the Wakhi, along with smaller numbers of yurt-dwelling Kyrgyz herders.[1] According to a 2003 report by the United Nations Environment Programme and Food and Agriculture Organization, the population suffers from lack of education, poverty, ill health, food insecurity and opium addiction.[4]
Townsend (2005) discusses the possibility of drug smuggling from Afghanistan to China via Wakhan Corridor and Wakhjir Pass, but concludes that, due to the difficulties of travel and border crossings, even if such trafficking occurs, it is minor compared to that conducted via Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province or even via Pakistan, both having much more accessible connections into China.[3]
Alastair Leithead on BBC News 24 on December 26, 2007, presented an half-hour feature about the corridor, focusing particularly on the work of expatriate British Doctor Alexander Duncan, which provided a significant piece of extended media reporting from this inaccessible area.[5] He has also covered the Pamir Festival in the area.[6]
[edit] Strategic role
Afghanistan has asked China on several occasions to open the border in the Wakhan Corridor as an alternative supply route for fighting the Taliban, however China has resisted, largely due to unrest in its far western province of Xinjiang which borders the corridor.[7][8]
[edit] Greater Pakistan
This is the natural accessible route from the historic Silk route of Republic of Turkestan to its Islamic connections of Turkic-Shahis of Pakistan, therefore it is considered as part of the country[citation needed]. However, its status is disputed and Tajikistan has laid claims on the territory of Badakhshan Province[citation needed].
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e FACTBOX-Key facts about the Wakhan Corridor. Reuters. June 12, 2009
- ^ The pass was crossed by a couple in 1950 and by a couple in 2004. See J.Mock and K. O'Neil: Expedition Report
- ^ a b "China and Afghan Opiates: Assessing the Risk" (Chapter 4). June 2005
- ^ United Nations Environment Programme; Food and Agriculture Organization. Afghanistan: Post-conflict Environmental Assessment Report.
- ^ BBC News: Doctor on call in Afghanistan
- ^ Pamir Times
- ^ Afghanistan tells China to open Wakhan corridor route. The Hindu. June 11, 2009
- ^ China mulls Afghan border request. BBC News Online. June 12, 2009
[edit] Books
- M. Nazif Mohib Shahrani, The Kirghiz and Wakhi of Afghanistan: Adaptation to Closed Frontiers and War. University of Washington Press, 2002. ISBN 0295982624.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Wakhan Corridor |
- WAKHIS IN PAKISTAN
- Pamir Trekking Information
- CIA Relief Map
- The Source of the Oxus River: Journey to the Wakhan Pamir & Across Dilisang Pass to Misgar (2004)
- Wakhan Development Partnership A project working to improve the lives of the people of Wakhan since 2003
- Wakhan Corridor Photos from Afghan Wakhan Corridor
- A Short Walk in the Wakhan Corridor Article by Mark Jenkins in the November 2005 issue of Outside magazine.
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