About Kohistan

Kohistan literally means the land of mountains. It is bounded on the north and north-east by Ghizer and Diamer Districts of Northern areas, on the south east by Mansehra District on the south by Battragram District and on the west by Shangla and Swat Districts. The River Indus cuts through the heart of Kohistan from start to end while dividing the District into Hazara Kohistan (East) and Swat Kohistan (West). Few indo Aryan languages in addition to Pashto are spoken in this area. The two areas have different history and culture with some commonalities. The narrow Indus valley in Kohistan is flanked by two mightiest ranges of the world. On the left bank are the offshoots of the Himalayas while on the right bank are the offshoots of the Karakorum

The District is warm in summer except some areas of high altitude and very cold in winter. There is heavy snowfall and temperature generally falls below freezing point especially in upper elevations. Monsoon reaches the lower parts of Kohistan. Indus River flowing from Tibet to Karachi has a unique and feasible nature for construction of Dams and great opportunity for hydro power production. In this background, a series of Dams are being or proposed to be constructed over River Indus like; Bonji, Diamer Bhasha, Dasu Dam, Pattan Dam, Thakot dam and Tarbela Dam etc.