Srinagar, Uttarakhand

Srinagar is located at 30.22°N 78.78°E / 30.22; 78.78.^[2] at the left bank of Alaknanda river. It has an average elevation of 560 metres (1,837 feet). It is reached by national highway NH58 from Rishikesh, Srinagar is about 104 km from Rishikesh which is the last city on the plains of Uttarakhand and from where the mountains start. Srinagar can also be reached via Kotdwara, from Kotdwara it takes maximum 5 hours to reach there. It is a municipal corporation in the Pauri district of uttarakhand.

Srinagar city mainly rests over the Quaternary fluvial terraces of boulders and sand deposited by Alaknanda river. The hard rock under these boulder-sand terraces is the Proterozoic phyllite called Pauri Phyllite. This highly fractured Pauri Phyllite of Chandpur Formation (Jaunsar Group) is separated from the quartzite and limestone of Rudraprayag Formation by the North Almora Thrust (NAT), sometimes also called Srinagar Thrust.

Srinagar came into limelight after becoming the capital of Garhwal Kingdom. King Ajay Pal with unifying the various chiefdoms and garhis^{[what language is this?]} (small counties) of this region during 1506–1512 CE founded the Garhwal kingdom and shifted the capital to Srinagar place from Chandpur Garhi.

The Gorkhas defeated the Nepali king and occupied Kathmandu. This emboldened them and they turned westward and attacked Kumaon and Garhwal in 1803. Raja Pradyumna Shah of Garhwal was defeated and killed in January 1804. Srinagar was under Gorkha rule from 1806 to 1815 CE. After the Gorkhas were defeated by the British, Srinagar became a part of British Garhwal.^[3]

The old Srinagar city was destroyed in the Gohna Lake dam-burst which destroyed all the old relics of the town.

Today the town is an important cultural and educational centre. Being placed in central Garhwal at a moderate height, it is an important Valley Bazar in the hills. It has a number of temples and monuments and places for tourists to stay and visit.

Srinagar's location in a valley flanked by high mountains means the city sees large annual temperature variations. Daytime high temperatures can exceed 44 °C (111 °F) between May and July, and the city sees the hottest summers of anywhere in the Garhwal Himalaya. On the coldest days of the year, which come mostly in December and January, the daytime high temperature sometimes does not exceed 2 °C (36 °F).^{[citation needed]}

Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University (renamed after Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna in 1989), established in 1973, is situated at Srinagar. The University has jurisdiction over seven districts of the Garhwal region. It was made a Central University in 2009 by the Central Universities Act, 2009. It has two other teaching campuses at Pauri and Tehri towns. It is a residential cum affiliating institution of higher learning with more than 180 affiliated colleges.

National Institute of Technology, Uttarakhand opened in 2010.

Srinagar Base Hospital Medical college with MBBS and MS courses having more than 500 students, is also situated at Srikot about 5 km from Srinagar towards Joshimath.^[4]

One ITI and one Polytechnic along with one B.Ed. college are other educational institutes in Srinagar.

Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) Cadets Training Academy is also operating here for long.It is now functioning as Centralised Training Center or CTC.

St. Theresa's School which is an English medium school is situated near Alaknanda river. Sri Guru Ram Rai(SGRR) is another school in Srinagar which is located near Kamleshwar Mahadev Mandir.

There are many schools affiliated to CBSE, CISCE and UBSE Boards in this town.

The literacy rate of Srinagar city is 92.03%, which is higher than the state average of 78.82%. In Srinagar, male literacy rate is 94.22% and the female literacy rate is 89.51%.