Ethnically most residents are Khowar, and Gawar-Bati[4] is the language spoken by the majority of the people in Arandu. As Arandu has a low elevation and is the last village in Chitral District on the traditional trade route to Kabul, locally this language is also known as Aranduiwar.[5]Pashto, Urdu, and Khowar are also spoken and understood.
Geography
Arandu is located on the banks of the Landai Sin River (Bashgal River) just above its intersection with the Kunar River (Chitral River),[6] along the Drosh-Jalalabad Road. The Drosh-Jalalabad Road, including water traffic along the Kunar, used to be part of a major trade route from India to Kabul. Arundu is built on river benches that rise above the agricultural fields next to the two rivers. Arandu has an average elevation of 327 m (1,073 ft). The Lowari Range is across the Kunar to the north and west, while Mount Raskarla rises to 2,432 metres (7,979 ft) four kilometers to the east.
Climate
Arandu has the lowest elevation of any place in Chitral District[7] and maintains tropical weather during the summer and warmer temperatures than the rest of Chitral in winter. The winters are rainier than the summers. Its climate is classified as warm and temperate, and is listed as Csa by Köppen and Geiger.[citation needed] The average annual temperature is 17.6 °C in Arandu. The average annual rainfall is 800 mm.
^Gawar-bati means "speech of the Gawar" Decker 1992, pp. 153–154
^Decker, Kendall D. (1992). Languages of Chitral. Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan, volume 5. Islamabad, Pakistan: National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University. pp. 153–154. ISBN978-969-8023-15-7. citing Israr-ud-Din (1969).
