Geography of India

The Geography of India presents a varied and diverse landscape ranging from snow-clad mountain ranges, deserts to plains, hills and plateaus. Climate ranges from equatorial in the far south, to tundra in the Himalayan altitudes. India has a long coastline of over seven thousand kilometres, most of which lies on a peninsula that protrudes into the Indian Ocean. India is bounded in the west by the Arabian Sea, and in the east by the Bay of Bengal.

India's main geographical features are the fertile Indo-Gangetic plain, which occupies most of northern, central and eastern India, and the Deccan Plateau of southern India. To the west of the country is the Thar Desert, which consists of a mixed rocky and sandy desert. India's east and north-eastern border consists of the lofty Himalayan range. The highest point in India is the Kanchenjunga, which is at a height of 8,598 m (28,208 feet).

India is bordered by Pakistan, Afghanistan, the People's Republic of China, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan. Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Indonesia are the neighbouring island nations lying to the south of India. Politically, India is divided into twenty-eight states, six federally administered union territories and a National capital territory.

Geographical regions

India is divided into seven geographic regions. They are

The northern mountains including the Himalayas and the northeast mountain ranges.
Indo-Gangetic plains
Thar Desert
Central Highlands and Peninsula plateau
East Coast
West Coast
Bordering seas and islands

Mountains

There are seven classified mountain ranges in India, all having peaks of over a thousand metres. The Himalayas are the only mountain ranges to have snow capped peaks.

Himalaya

The Himalaya mountain range, is the world's highest mountain range. The Himalayas make up India's north-eastern border, separating it from the rest of Asia. The Himalayas are the world's youngest mountain range and extend almost uninterrupted for a distance of 2,500 km, covering an area of 500,000 km². The mountain chain is thought to have been the result of Tectonic activity; the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates some 50 million years ago.

The Himalayas extend from the state of Jammu and Kashmir in the west to the state of Arunachal Pradesh in the east, passing through the states of Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, and Sikkim. Some of the peaks of the Himalaya are over 7,000 metres and the snow line ranges between 6,000 metres in Sikkim to around 3,000 metres in Kashmir. The highest point in the country's territory is the Kanchenjunga, which lies in Sikkim, straddling its western border with Nepal. Most of the peaks in the Himalayas are snowbound throughout the year. Climate ranges from sub tropical in the foothills to tundra in the higher elevations.

The Shiwalik or Lower Himalaya is consists of smaller hills towards the Indian side. Most of the rock formations are young and highly unstable, with landslides a regular phenomenon during the rainy season. Many of India's hill stations are located on this range.

Patkai

The Patkai or the Purvachal are the hills on India's eastern border with Myanmar. They were created by the same tectonic processes that resulted in the formation of the Himalaya. They are not as rugged as the Himalayas and its peaks are much lower in height. Features of the range include conical peaks, steep slopes and deep valleys.

Three hill ranges come under the Patkai. The Patkai-Bum, the Garo-Khasi-Jaintia, and the Lushai hills. The Garo-Khasi range is in the Indian state of Meghalaya. Cherapunji on the windward side of these hills has the distinction of being the world's wettest place, having the highest annual rainfall.

Climate ranges from temperate to alpine due to altitude.

Vindhya

The Vindhya range runs across most of central India, covering a distance of 1050 km. The average elevation of these hills are 300 m. They are believed to have been formed by the wastes created by the weathering of the ancient Aravalli. It geographically separates northern India from southern India

The western end of the range rises in eastern Gujarat state, near the border with Madhya Pradesh, and the range runs east and north nearly to the Ganges River at Mirzapur. The southern slopes of the range are drained by the Narmada River, which drains westward to the Arabian Sea in the depression between the Vindhya Range and the parallel Satpura Range to the south. The northern slopes of the range are drained by tributaries of the Ganges, including the Kali Sindh, Parbati, Betwa, and Ken. The Son, a tributary of the Ganges; drains the southern slopes of the range at its eastern end.

Satpura

The Satpura Range is a range of hills in central India. The range rises in eastern Gujarat near the Arabian Sea coast, running east through Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and ending at Chhattisgarh. It extends for a distance of 900 km with many of its peaks rising above 1000 m. It is triangular in shape, with its head at Ratnapuri and the two sides parallel to the Tapi and Narmada rivers.

The range parallels the Vindhya Range to the north, and these two east-west ranges divide the Indo-Gangetic plain of northern India from the Deccan Plateau to the south. The Tapi runs in the depression between the Satpura and Vindhya ranges, and draining the northern slope of the Satpura range and running west towards the Arabian Sea.

Aravalli

The Aravalli Range is a range of mountains in western India running approximately 300 miles northeast-southwest across Rajasthan state. The northern end of the range continues as isolated hills and rocky ridges into Haryana state, ending near Delhi. The highest peak is Mount Abu. Rising to 5653 feet, it lies near the southwestern extremity of the range, close to the border with Gujarat. The city of Ajmer with its lake lies on the south slope of the range in Rajasthan.

The Aravalli Range is the eroded stub of range of ancient folded mountains. The range rose in a Precambrian event called the Aravalli-Delhi orogen. The range joins two of the ancient segments that make up the Indian craton, the Marwar segment to the northwest of the range, and the Bundelkhand segment to the southeast.

Sahyadri

The Western Ghats or Sahyadri mountains run along the western edge of India's Deccan Plateau, and separate the plateau from a narrow coastal plain along the Arabian Sea. The range starts south of the Tapti River near the border of Gujarat and Maharashtra, and runs approximately 1600 km through the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu, almost to the southern tip of the Indian peninsula. The average elevation is around 900 meters. Higher peaks occur in the northern section of the range in Maharashtra, notably Kalsubai 1646 m (5427 ft), Mahabaleshwar 1438 m (4710 ft) and Harishchandragarh 1424 m (4691 ft); in southwest Karnataka, notably Kudremukh at 1862 m; and in the southern part of the range, with Anai Mudi in Kerala at 2695 meters height the highest peak in the Western Ghats.

Eastern Ghats

The Eastern Ghats are a discontinuous range of mountains, eroded and cut through by the four major rivers of southern India, the Godavari, Mahanadi, Krishna, and Kaveri. These mountain ranges run from West Bengal state in the north, through Orissa and Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu in the south. These ranges run parallel to the Bay of Bengal. The Eastern Ghats are not as high as the Western Ghats.