🇮🇳 India: Location, Political Divisions, and Physiography

Location and Extent 📍

 India is located in Southern Asia, above the Indian Ocean.
 The country extends from Kashmir in the north to Kanniyakumari in the
south.
 Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal are situated on the western and eastern
sides of peninsular India, respectively.
 India has an advantageous location with reference to world's major sea
routes and air routes.
 Located in the Northern Hemisphere.
 Latitudinal extent: 8°4'N to 37°6'N.
 The Tropic of Cancer (23°30'N) passes through the middle of the
country.
 North-south extent: Nearly 3,200 km.
 Longitudinal extent: 68°7'E to 97°25'E, placing it in the Eastern
Hemisphere.
 Width: Maximum at the center, nearly 2,900 km, decreasing
towards the south.
 Kanniyakumari in Tamil Nadu represents the southern tip of the
mainland.
Significance of Latitudinal and Longitudinal Extent 🧭
 Latitudinal Extent:
 Renders a variety of climate and vegetation types to its various
regions.
 Below 10°N: Equatorial climate; Evergreen rainforests
 10°N-30°N: Tropical climate; Tropical evergreen and
deciduous vegetation
 30°N-37°N: Temperate climate; Temperate forests
(coniferous)
 Ladakh: Arctic type of climate; Tundra vegetation
 Longitudinal Extent:
 Longitudes help derive the local time of a place.
 To avoid confusion, a central meridian 82°30'E has been chosen to
derive the Indian Standard Time (IST).
 It lies exactly at the center of the country between the eastern and
western longitudinal limits.
  Longitudinal difference between east and west extent: Roughly 97 -
68 = 29.
 Central meridian: 29/2 = 14.5 => 68°E + 14.5 = 82.5°E or
82°30'E
 Both the eastern and western parts of India equally share the time
derived from the central meridian 82°30'E.
India and Its Neighboring Countries
 India is a part of South Asia and dominates the Indian Ocean
trade between the eastern and the western world.
 Coastline length along the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal is
nearly 6,100 km.
 Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal and
the Lakshadweep Islands in the Arabian Sea are the two archipelagos
that belong to India.

Direction Neighboring Countries

North Nepal, China, and Bhutan

East Myanmar

West/North-west Pakistan and Afghanistan

East Bangladesh (to the east of West Bengal)

South Sri Lanka and Maldives (across the Gulf of Mannar)

Political Divisions of India

 The Republic of India is a union of 28 states and 8 union territories.
 New Delhi is a union territory and also the capital of the Republic of India,
known as the National Capital Territory (NCT).
 States have been demarcated mainly on the basis of languages spoken by
the people.
 States vary in area (Goa is the smallest, Rajasthan is the largest).
 Regional locations:
 Himalayan Region: Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim,
Uttarakhand, and Arunachal Pradesh
 Northern Plains: Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and West
Bengal
 Brahmaputra Valley: Assam
  Indian Desert: Rajasthan
 Peninsular Plateau: Other states, except Madhya Pradesh,
Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh, have access to the sea coast.
Physiographic Divisions of India
 Major physical divisions:
 The Northern Mountains
 The Northern Plains
 The Peninsular Plateau
 The Coastal Plains
 The Thar Desert
 The Islands
The Northern Mountains
 Include the Himalayas and other mountain ranges with some of the
highest peaks in the world.
 The Himalayas extend as an arc shape from Jammu and Kashmir to
Arunachal Pradesh, covering a length of nearly 2,500 km.
 Width decreases from 400 km in the west to nearly 150 km in the
east.
 Traditional limits: Indus Valley in the west and Brahmaputra
Valley in the east.
 Young fold mountains composed of sedimentary rocks, folded and
uplifted in recent geological periods.
 Some peaks like Mount
Everest and Kanchenjunga exceed 8,000 m.
 'Himalaya' literally means the 'abode of snow'.
 The Himalayas consist of three parallel ranges: Himadri, Himachal, and
Siwalik Ranges, with deep narrow valleys between them.
 Himadri (Greater Himalayas):
 Northernmost range.
 Average height of 6,000 m.
 Mt. Everest (8,848 m), the world's highest peak is in Nepal.
 Mt. Kanchenjunga (8,598 m) in Sikkim is the highest peak
of the Himalayas in India.
 Other important peaks: Nanga Parbat, Nanda Devi,
Annapurna, and Makalu.
  High-altitude passes: Rohtang, Shipki La, Bara-lacha La, and
Zoji La.
 Himachal (Lesser Himalayan Range):
 Lies to the south of the Himadri Range.
 Average altitude varies between 1,500 m and 3,000 m,
with some peaks rising to 5,000 m.
 Parts of the Himachal Ranges: Pir Panjal Range in Kashmir
and Dhauladhar Range in Himachal Pradesh.
 Kashmir Valley lies between the Greater Himalayas to the
north and the Pir Panjal Range to the south.
 Famous hill stations: Darjeeling, Mussoorie, Manali, Nainital,
and Shimla.
 Siwalik (Outer Himalayan Range):
 Southernmost range of the Himalayas.
 Forms the foothills of the Himalayas with an altitude of less
than 1,500 m.
 Hills of this range are narrow, discontinuous, and merge with
the other ranges.
 Made up of unconsolidated rocks.
 Narrow valleys between the Siwalik and the Himachal are
called Duns (e.g., Dehradun Valley).
 Densely forested and marshy region at the foothills of the
Siwalik is called Terai.
 Beyond the Brahmaputra Valley, the mountain range continues along
India's borders with Myanmar (Burma), called the Purvanchal or Eastern
Hills.
 Average elevation is less than 3,000 m.
 Called the Patkai Bum, Naga Hills, Lushai, and Mizo Hills.
 In Meghalaya: Garo, Khasi, and Jaintia Hills, confronting monsoon
winds rising from the Bay of Bengal.
 The Karakoram Mountains in Ladakh are located north of the
Himalayas.
 Extend from the Pamir Plateau in the north.
 K2 (8,611 m), the world's second-highest peak, is located in this
range.
 Many lofty peaks, large snowfields, and glaciers such as the Siachen
Glacier.
The Northern Plains 🌾
 Relatively flat lowland with an elevation of less than 300 m above sea
level.
 Lie between the Northern Mountains and the Peninsular Plateau to the
south.
 Formed by the deposition of alluvium by rivers flowing from the Northern
Mountains and the Peninsular Plateau.
 Alluvial deposits are hundreds of meters in thickness and form fertile soils.
 Extend for a distance of about 2,500 km from the Punjab in the west to
the Brahmaputra Valley in the east.
 Divided into three subdivisions:
 The Indus Plains
 The Ganga Plains
 The Brahmaputra Valley

Plains Rivers

Indus Plains Indus and its five tributaries

Ganga Plains Ganga and its tributaries Yamuna, Ghaghara, Gandak, Kosi,

Brahmaputra Valley Brahmaputra and its tributaries (relatively narrow lowland)

 The Indus is a long river that rises in Tibet beyond the Himalayas; a
greater part of the Indus basin is in Pakistan.
 The Ganga Plains have an extremely gentle slope.
 The river flows slowly through many meanders.
 Parts of the plain are subjected to floods in the rainy season.
 In its lower course, the Ganga divides itself into distributaries to
form a delta along with the Brahmaputra.
 The Ganga-Brahmaputra Delta is the largest delta in the world;
major part in Bangladesh, small area in India.
 Seaward face of the delta has many distributaries and islands.
 The Brahmaputra Valley is a relatively narrow lowland extending for a
length of about 700 km and a width of less than 100 km.
 Lowland consists of alluvial deposits laid down by the Brahmaputra
and its tributaries.
 The Brahmaputra originates in Tibet where it is known as the
Tsangpo.
  Tsangpo enters Arunachal Pradesh through a deep gorge at Namcha
Barwa, and thereafter, flows through Assam.
 Joined by numerous tributaries on both its banks during its valley
course.
 The Brahmaputra joins the Ganga, and the combined river flows
through Bangladesh as the Padma.
The Peninsular Plateau
 Covers nearly half the area of India.
 Part of the ancient stable land mass called the Gondwanaland and consists
of ancient igneous and metamorphic rocks.
 Has an undulating surface with relatively gentle slopes due to denudation
by rivers for millions of years.
 Divided into two major divisions:
 The Central Highlands (to the north of the Vindhya Range)
 The Deccan Plateau (to the south)
 The Central Highlands comprise a highly denuded topography,
extending from the Malwa Plateau in the west towards the east as
Bundelkhand, Baghelkhand, and Chota Nagpur Plateau respectively.
 The Chota Nagpur Plateau marks the eastern limit of the Peninsular
Plateau; drained by rivers that are tributaries of the Ganga and the
Yamuna.
 The Aravalli Range, one of the oldest fold mountain ranges of the
world, forms the western limit of the Malwa Plateau.
 The Deccan Plateau, lying to the south of the Narmada Valley, is a
triangular land mass that owes its existence to lave eruptions of the past.
 The western edge of the plateau rises steeply from the Arabian Sea
to form the Western Ghats (called the Sahyadri in the north).
 The Nilgiri, the Anaimalai, and the Cardamom Hills are in the south.
 The Western Ghats extend continuously up to Kanniyakumari.
 Anaimudi (2,695 meters) in the Anaimalai Hills is the highest peak
in the Western Ghats.
 The Deccan Plateau slopes gently towards the east.
 Surface dissected by a number of rivers; elevation ranges from 300
m to 900 m.
 As the rivers plunge from the edge of the plateaus, a number of
waterfalls are formed (e.g., Jog Falls).
 Eastern border of the plateau is marked by the Eastern Ghats, which
are low hills isolated from one another unlike the Western Ghats.
  Elevation of these hills does not normally exceed 1,000 m.
 The Eastern Ghats meet the Western Ghats in the Nilgiri Hills (Blue
Mountains).
 The Deccan Plateau is drained by many long, east-flowing rivers
that originate in the Western Ghats, flow towards the east, and
enter the Bay of Bengal.
 Godavari (Dakshina Ganga), Mahanadi, Krishna, and Kaveri.
 These rivers have built deltas near the coast.
 There are a number of short westward-flowing rivers that drain into
the Arabian Sea.
 These rivers flow rapidly along the steep slope of the Western
Ghats.
 The Narmada and the Tapi are two long west-flowing rivers in
the northern part.
 The Narmada River flows in a narrow rift valley between the
Vindhya Range to the north and the Satpura Range to the
south.
 The Tapi River flows south of the Satpura range.
 Both the Narmada and the Tapi rivers enter the Arabian Sea
along the Gujarat coast and do not make deltas but estuaries.
 Deccan Trap Region:
the north-western part of the Deccan Plateau covered by thick lava sheets that
appear to be like steps
 Large quantities of lava erupted at successive intervals, in the past.
 This region, which is covered by lava sheets and has a step-like
appearance, is called the Deccan Trap Region (trap meaning 'step').
 There are many flat-topped hills in this area.
 The volcanic rocks have been severely eroded to form the fertile black soil
that covers the whole plateau.
The Coastal Plains
 There are Coastal Plains along the margins of the Deccan Plateau.
 The Western Coastal Plain is relatively narrow except in Gujarat.
 The northern part of Maharashtra and Karnataka is called
the Konkan Coast.
 The southern part is called the Malabar Coast.
 In Kerala, the coastal plain has a width of about 100 km.
  There are many lagoons and backwaters along the Kerala
coast.
 The Eastern Coastal Plain is broader and more continuous than
the western coastal plain.
 The Tamil Nadu coast is called the Coromandel Coast.
 The northern part is called the Northern Circars.
 There are large fertile deltas built by the Mahanadi, the
Godavari, the Krishna, and the Kaveri Rivers.
 Tidal forests and rich mangrove trees cover large areas of the
Ganga Delta in West Bengal, known as the Sundarbans.
 The Sundarbans is known for its rich biodiversity, especially
for the Royal Bengal tigers, crocodiles, gharials, and olive
ridley turtles.
The Thar Desert
 Lies to the west of the Aravalli Range in Rajasthan.
 Region of inland drainage.
 Short ephemeral streams appear with the rains and disappear in the sand.
 There are many salt lakes of which the Sambhar Lake is the largest.
 The desert is covered by rocky surfaces and sand dunes!
 Dunes are vast tracts of moving sand with different shapes and sizes.
 Luni is the only river in the desert, draining into the Kachchh area.
The Islands
 There are a number of small and large islands, some of which are of
volcanic origin while some are of coral origin.
 Lakshadweep Islands in the Arabian Sea are a group of 36 coral islands
located off the coast of Kerala.
Lakshadweep means 'a hundred thousand islands'. Lakshadweep Islands are a
cluster of islands with fringing reefs. Kavaratti is the capital of this union territory
where the Indian Navy is stationed to guard the open sea. Sardar Patel
integrated these islands into the Indian Republic. Tourism and fishing are the two
major sources of livelihood for people in these islands.
 Atoll:
ring-shaped islands with fringing coral reefs
 Coral reef:
chains of island consisting of accumulated coral secretions and skeletons of dead
corals, which are formed in warm, shallow waters
 Fringing reef:
they grow near the coastline or around the islands, separated by shallow lagoons
 These ring-shaped islands with fringing coral reefs are called atolls.
 These islands are hardly a meter above sea level and hence are under the
threat of rising sea levels.
 Andaman and Nicobar Islands lie in the Bay of Bengal.
 A group of 324 islands that are volcanic in nature.
 Indira Point in Nicobar group of islands is the last point of Indian
territory.
 Barren Island, to the east of the Andaman Islands, is an active
volcano.
India as a Geographical Unit 🇮🇳
 Scientists believe that in the past, there was a shallow and narrow sea
called Tethys in the region where the Himalayas stand today.
 The sea was gradually filled up with the sediments brought down from the
Eurasian land masses.
 When the old Gondwanaland mass started moving towards the Tibetan
land mass, the sediments in the Tethys sea floor were compressed and
uplifted to form the Himalayan fold mountain.
 The denudation of the Himalayan Range and Peninsular India and further
deposition of sediments by the rivers resulted in the formation of the
Northern Plains.
 The Northern Mountains, the Northern Plains, and the Peninsular Plateau
together form a well-knit geographical unit.
 These are mutually interdependent in many respects.
 The Northern Mountains have formed a physical barrier and
prevented the entry of cold winds into the subcontinent.
 The mountains are responsible for the heavy monsoon rainfall over
the subcontinent because winds are forced to ascend up their
slopes.
 The melting of glaciers in these mountains makes the Himalayan
rivers perennial.
 The rivers provide fresh water for domestic use, irrigation for
agriculture, and are used for transport and navigation. (also forest
resources and potential hydroelectric power.)
 The Northern Plains have fertile alluvial soils and an abundant water
supply from rivers.
 This region produces food grains needed by the people in India.
 Jute and sugarcane grown here form the basis of agro-based
industries.
  The Peninsular Plateau has rich mineral resources such as coal, iron
ore, manganese, limestone, mica, copper, and bauxite.
 It has many mineral-based industries and is known for its cotton and
sugarcane cultivation.
 It also produces rain-fed crops such as millets, pulses, and oilseeds.
 The Coastal Plains are rich agricultural regions producing a variety
of crops.
 Ports are located along the coast. The beaches and islands are
major tourist attractions.
 Each major physical region is important in its own way in contributing to
the welfare of the people.
 These four regions and their resources together make India a strong and
united nation