Two lakes in the lower Siwalik Himalayas, five in the Kashmir valley and two situated in the high mountains of the Kashmir Himalayas were investigated for their physico-chemical and biological features. The lakes, differing significantly in their morphology and in thermal behaviour, rank from the subtropical monomictic to the dimictic type. The lakes at high altitudes (> 3000 m) have very low electric conductivity which increases with the decrease in altitude. The most dominant ions in water are calcium and bicarbonate. The macrophytic vegetation of the lakes does not show any definite relationship either with altitude or with physico-chemical milieu. In the lakes with low fertility the phytoplankton is dominated by diatoms and Chlorophyceae but in eutrophic lakes Cyanophyceae predominate. The zooplankton population of the lakes is mainly comprised of rotifera. On the basis of general limnological features and the rates of phytoplankton production most of the lakes may be categorized either as eutrophic or in the process of rapid evolution. Only one lake is oligotrophic.