Saturday, December 13, 2008

GEOGRAPHY OF INDIA

In terms of geography India is a very diverse country. India geography comprises of a large number of landforms and regions such as mountains, hills, plateaus, plains, deserts, rainforest's, etc and different water bodies like streams, rivers, lakes, seas, bays, etc. other than these India has a coastline, which extends up to 7000km and its peninsular region enters the Indian Ocean while it is surrounded by the Arabian Sea on the southwest and the Bay of Bengal to the southeast. The coastline also gives rise to gulfs such as the gulfs of Ketch and Cam bay to the west.

The geography and climate of India are both related to each other in such as way that the climate influences the geography and vice verse. For example, snow capped mountain ranges are seen towards the north of India due to higher temperatures at that latitude and also as a result of the high altitudes of the young fold mountains in this region. Also, areas with higher rainfall tend to have more forest cover with tropical rain forests predominating and the vegetation cover in turn influences the evaporation and humidity, etc, hence affecting rainfall and climate.

The geography of ancient India served as a foundation stone for the present day geography, which it has evolved into. India geographically basically consists of a number of landforms and water bodies.Among landforms, mountain ranges such as the Himalayas, Aravalli range, Western Ghats (Sahayadri) and Eastern Ghats, Patkai, Satpuras, Karakoram and Vindhya ranges are present. There are other highlands such as the Deccan plateau, Malwa plateau and Chhotta Nagpur plateau.

The major Indian plain is the Indo-Gangetic plain formed by the Ganga, Bhramaputra and Indus rivers and their branches. Other than these plains the Western coastal plains and Eastern coastal plains occupy relatively smaller areas.The desert region of India is the Thar Desert (Great Indian Desert). Lakshwadeep and Andaman and Nicobar islands are the two main offshore islands that form a part of Indian territory. Diu, Majuli, Salcette island, Elephanta and Sriharikota are other important islands of India. The Sundarbans and the Rann of Kutch are the major marshy wetlands of India.

Water bodies include rivers such as Indus, Ravi, Jhelum, Chenab, Shuttle, Beas, Ganga, Chambal, Yamuna, Gomti, Bhramaputra, Krishna, Kaveri, Narmada, Tapi, Godavari and Mahanadi, gulfs such as the gulfs of Kutch, Cambay and Mannar, straits such as Palk strait (distinguishing India from Sri Lanka) and the Ten Degree channel (distinguishing the Andaman and Nicobar islands), lakes such as Dal lake, Chilka lake, Kolleru lake, Sambhar lake and Loktak lake. Other than these India is surrounded by the Arabian Sea to the west, Indian Ocean to the south and the Bay of Bengal to the east.

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