Indian Geography Notes for Civil Services Examination

India is the seventh largest country in the world, which makes obvious for the country to have vast geographical features. India in South Asia lies largely on the Indian plate. India is the northern portion of the Indo-Australian plate, whose continent crust forms the Indian subcontinent.

Main Land of India lies to the north of the equator between 8°4' to 37°6' north latitude and 68°7' to 97°25' east longitude, with a total land area of 3,287,263 square kilometers. India measures 3,214 kilometers from north to south and 2,993 kilometers from east to west. It has a land frontier of 15,200 km and a coastline of 7,517 km. India is bounded to the south west by the ''Arabian sea', and to the southeast by the 'Bay of Bengal' and to the south by Indian Ocean. The Maldives, Sri Lanka and Indonesia are island nations to the south of India with Sri Lanka separated from India by a narrow channel of sea formed by Palk strait and the gulf of MANNAR.

The Northern frontiers of India are defined largely by the Himalayan mountain range, where its political boundaries with China, Bhutan and Nepal lie. Its western borders with Pakistan lie in the Punjab plain and the Thar desert. In the far northeast, the chin hills and Kachin Hills, deeply forested mountainous regions, separate India from Myanmar. India's political border with Bangladesh is defined by the watershed region of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, the Khasi hills and Mizo hills.

India is devided into 29 states and 7 union territories, and also devided into six physiographic regions that are.
(i) The Northern Mountains
(ii) Indo Gangetic Plains
(iii) The Peninsular Plateau
(iv) Thar Desert
(v) The Coastal Plains
(vi) The Islands

Vivekananda Rock (Kanyakumari) constitutes the southern tip of the India peninsula, southernmost part of India is 'Indira-point' in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the northern tip of India is Indiracol in Jammu & Kashmir. The western most part of India is Rajhar creek and eastern most is Valang in Arunachal Pradesh. India's borders run a total (Land & Coastal) length of 22,700km. Its borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh were delineated LOC (Line Of Control) according to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Sikkim. The Silliguri corridor, Narrowed sharply by the borders of Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh, connects peninsular India with the northeastern states.

The Tropic of Cancer in India passes through the following states - Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura and Mizoram. It divides the country into two near halves. Most regions on the tropic of cancer experience two distinct seasons; an extremely hot summer with temperatures often reaching 45°C (113°F) and a warm winter with maxima around 22°C (72°F). most land on or near the tropic of cancer is part of the Sahara Desert, While st to the east the climate to torrid Monsoonal with a short wet season from June to September and very little rainfall for the rest of the year.

Effective Boundaries between India and other Countries

Mc Mohan Line - A boundary line between India and China, also called LAC (Line of Actual Control) agreed by Britain and Tibet as part of the 'Shimla Accord' a treaty signed in 1914.

Radcliffe Line - A boundary line between India and Pakistan and Bangladesh. On 15 July, 1947, the 'Indian Independence Act 1947' of the Parliament of the UK stipulated that British rule in India would come on end just on 15 August, 1947. The Act also stipulated the portion of the provinces of British India's into two new sovereign dominions: the 'Union of India' and the 'Dominion of Pakistan'

The Pemberton Johnstone Maxwell Line - A boundary line between India and Myanmar, also known as "24th parallel." Myanmar (formerly Burma) was made a province of British India by British Rulers and again separated in 1937.

Durand Line – A boundary line between India and Afghanistan. It was established after an 1893 agreement between Sir Mortimer Durand of British India and Afghan Amir Abdur Rahman Khan for fixing the limit of their respective sphere of influence as well as improving diplomatic relations and trade.