Zoji La
Encyclopedia
Zoji La is a high mountain pass
Mountain pass
A mountain pass is a route through a mountain range or over a ridge. If following the lowest possible route, a pass is locally the highest point on that route...

  in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, located on the Indian National Highway 1
National Highway 1 (India)
National Highway 1 or is a National Highway in Northern India that links the National capital New Delhi to the town of Attari in Punjab near the India-Pakistan International border. This was a part of Grand Trunk Road of Sher Shah Suri, that ran from Lahore to Bengal, built on earlier roads that...

 between Srinagar
Srinagar
Srinagar is the summer seasonal capital of Jammu and Kashmir. It is situated in Kashmir Valley and lies on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus. It is one of the largest cities in India not to have a Hindu majority. The city is famous for its gardens, lakes and houseboats...

 and Leh in the western section of the Himalayan mountain range. Though often referred to as Zojila Pass in the foreign press, the correct English translation is Zoji Pass or simply Zojila, since the suffix 'La' itself means pass in several Himalayan languages. In modern-day North Indian languages, 'La' (ला) and 'Darra' (दर्रा) are both used interchangeably to mean pass.

Zoji La is 9 km (5.6 mi) from Sonamarg
Sonamarg
Sonmarg or Sonamarg is a town of Jammu and Kashmir state of India. Situated at 87 km from Srinagar, it is a popular tourist destination....

 and provides a vital link between Ladakh and Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...

. It runs at an elevation of approximately 3528 metres (11,575 ft), and is the second highest pass after Fotu La
Fotu La
Fotu La or Fatu La is a mountain pass on the Srinagar-Leh highway in the Himalayas Zaskar Range in India. At an elevation of , it is the highest point on the highway, surpassing the famed Zoji La....

 on the Srinagar-Leh National Highway. It is often closed during winter, though the Border Roads Organisation
Border Roads Organisation
The Border Roads Organisation maintains roads that serve the borders areas of India. It is staffed with a combination of Border Roads Engineering Service officers from the General Reserve Engineer Force and officers from the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army. The organisation develops and...

 (BRO) is working to extend traffic to most parts of the year. The Beacon Force unit of the BRO is responsible for clearing and maintenance of the road during Winter.

During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947
Indo-Pakistani War of 1947
The India-Pakistan War of 1947-48, sometimes known as the First Kashmir War, was fought between India and Pakistan over the princely state of Kashmir and Jammu from 1947 to 1948. It was the first of four wars fought between the two newly independent nations...

, Zoji La was seized by Pakistani raiders in 1948 in their campaign to capture Ladakh
Ladakh
Ladakh is a region of Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state of the Republic of India. It lies between the Kunlun mountain range in the north and the main Great Himalayas to the south, inhabited by people of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent...

. The pass was captured by Indian forces on 1st November in a daring infantry assault codenamed Operation Bison
Operation Bison (Jammu & Kashmir 1948)
Operation Bison is the codename of the assault and capture of Zoji La, Dras and Kargil district in Ladakh by the Indian Army during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947.Zoji La had been seized by Pakistani raiders in 1948 in their campaign to capture Ladakh...

, which achieved success primarily due to the surprise use of armour, then the highest altitude at which armour had operated in combat in the world.
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