India-location And Physiography

The Bay of Bengal is located in the South-east of India. In the west of India we have the Tropic of Cancer, in the south we have the Indian Ocean and in the south-west we have the Arabian Sea.

Park Strait separates India from Sri Lanka. The Arakanyoma mountain range in the east separates India from Myanmar whereas Maldives and Lakshadweep are a collection of small land masses situated in the Bay of Bengal.

Allahabad is in Uttar Pradesh which contains the most preferred centrally located meridian located nearly on the longitude reference line. Ahmedabad is in Gujarat, Hyderabad is in Telangana and Aurangabad is in Maharashtra.

The highest peak in the world is Mt. Everest with a height of 8848m. Nandi Devi has a height of 7817m, Mt. Kanchenjunga has a height of8586m and Dhaulagiri has a height of 8172m.

The Source of River Ganga is Gangotri. Yamunotri is the source of Yamuna river whereas Siachen is a glacier located in the eastern Karakoram Range in the Himalayas.

The Himalayas are also known as the ‘Abode of snow’ Himachal are referred to as the lesser Himalayas, Siwalik as the outer Himalayas and Himadri as The Great Himalayas. All of these are parts of the central Himalayas.

The main physical features of India are-

a) Northern Mountains,

b) Northern Great Plains,

c) Peninsular Plateaus,

d) Coastal plains and

e) Islands

Any two points on the importance of the Himalayas are-

a) They act as a natural barriers from undesirable natural factors like the cold winds from Central Asia

b) The Himalayas are the source of many great rivers of India namely Indus, Jhelum, Chenab and so on

Some holy places in the Northern Mountains of India are-

a) Kedarnath temple

b) Kailash Mansarovar

c) Char Dham and so on

Rivers that do not form deltas on the west coast of India are Narmada, Sabarmati, Mahi and Tapti.

The islands belonging to India are Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar

Any land body is considered as a subcontinent if it has distinct characteristics of its own either politically or geographically even after being a part of the continent which is relevant by the fact of its geographical region regarding how it is surrounded by three large bodies. Not only that, the essential component (the people) is different in terms of caste, creed, religion, ethnicity, language and cultures. With the land containing different physical features such as the deserts, The Great Himalayas, plateaus and so on. Hence, one could conclude India as a subcontinent.

It basically defines a scenario showing unity along or within its heterogeneous or mixed elements. This line is totally appropriate for India as one can notice unity even though its constituents differ in terms of religion, geographical features and so on. Though with such differences we see how well it cooperates and benefits the country on a whole like the creation of flora and fauna possible by its diversified climate, the freedom of following one’s belief allowing secularism to flourish in the country and showing unity in times of foreign invasion keeping their differences aside with supportive examples such as the Kargil Invasion and on natural calamities like floods, tsunamis, etc.

Earlier their just existed a single piece of land (instead of many as we know) which were referred to as the ‘Pangea’ surrounded by water bodies referred to as the ‘Panthalasa’ which got divided into two parts namely the Angara land (Laurasia) and the Gondwana land as the northern and the southern part respectively separated by the sea called the Tethys sea stretching itself towards the east-west direction. The rivers from these two land bodies deposited their silts along the Tethys sea which later along with the northward movement of Gondwana pushed this deposited silt upwards resulting in the formation of gigantic folds due to the collision of the Indo-Australian plate and the Eurasian plate which are now known as the Himalayas.

The Himalayan Mountains has many important features along with its beauty that pleases the eye. It forms a natural barrier saving us from the cold winds originating from the north. It is a source of many rivers such as Indus, Jhelum, etc. which carries the fertile soil from the mountains bringing it down to the plains. Not only that, it acts as a stoppage for the monsoon winds thereby providing rain to many parts of the country.

Located at the south of the Himalayas, The Northern Plains are formed by the deposits of Indus, the Ganga and the Brahmaputra rivers. Extending over a length of 2400 km with an area of over 7 lakh sq.km formed after the creation of the Himalayas where its rivers brought down sediments and fertile soil which later became its constituents which included features such as Bhabar (unasserted sediments), Terrain (marshy tracks), Bhangar (older alluvium) and Khadar (newer alluvium), because to its huge area and different characteristics of the soil it was further divided into 4 parts. The first is The Rajasthan Plain which is located in the Aravalli range extending for about 640kms with an average width of about 300kms. These cover western Rajasthan where two-third of this region is desert. Second is The PunjabHaryana plain, located in the north-east of the Great Indian Desert extending over 640kms from north-east to south-west and about 300kms from west to east. Third is The Ganga plain, the largest plain extending from The Yamuna River in the west to the Bangladesh in the east. Extending over 1500kms with an average width of 300kms covering the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. And finally the fourth is The Brahmaputra plain originating in Tibet which is locally known out there as ‘Tsangpo’ which consists of large marshy tracts containing alluvial fans leading to the formation of ‘Terrai’.

Located in the south of the Northern Great Plains, this Peninsula Plateau is triangular in shape covering an area of 16 lakh sq.kms with an average height of 600-900m composed of the oldest rocks. Surrounded by hill ranges on all sides such as the Aravalli, Vindhya, Satpura and Rajmahal ranges in the north, the Western Ghats in the west and the Eastern Ghats in the east, The plateau is divided by the Narmada river into two parts. One is The Central Highlands which includes the Bundelkhand, the Malwa plateau, the Baghelkhand lying to the east of Mailkala range, the Chotanagpur plateau and parts of the Vindhya Range. Whereas the other is The Deccan Plateau covering vast portions of the southern part of the country with an area of 5lakh sq.km, made up of lava and covered with black soil, bounded by the Satpura and the Vidhya ranges in the northwest, the Mahadev and Maikala ranges in the north and the western and eastern Ghats in its east and west respectively.

Rajasthan

Goa

Densely populated state is Delhi and sparsely populated state is Arunachal Pradesh

The names of seven states in the north eastern India constituting the seven sisters are Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Nagaland.