Indian Geography Part 01 Notes For All Competative Exams

India occupies a South-Central position in the Asian Continent, looking across the Arabian Sea to Arabia and Africa on the West and across Bay of Bengal to Myanmar, Malaysia and the Indonesian Archipelago on the East. Geographically, the Himalayan ranges keep India apart from the rest of Asia. India derives her name from river Indus.

It is often described as a tropical although the territorial limits of the Indian mainland extend between 8⁰ 4’ N and 37⁰6’ N latitudes and 68⁰ 7’ E and 97⁰ 25’ E longitudes.

·         India ranks seventh in the world in terms of area after Russia, Canada, USA, China, Brazil and Australia.

·         It has a total land area of about 3287263 sq km, which is 2.42% of world area.

·         It is second largest in terms of population and holds 17.4% of the total world population.

·         India is the second largest country in Asia both in terms of area as well as population, after China.

·         India has only one standard time. India is 5.5 hours ahead of GMT/UTC, 4.5 hours behind Australian Eastern Standard Time and 10.5 hours ahead of American Eastern Standard Time.

·         The  longitude that passes through Naini near Allahabad city is choosen as standard longitude for Indian Standard Time.

·         The IST crosses through the five states of India, they are Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.

·         The country’s East-West distance is more than 2933 km, which covers over 29⁰ of longitude, resulting the Sun rising and Sitting almost two hours earlier on India’s eastern border than in the Rann of Kutch (Gujarat) in the far West.

·         Rajasthan is the largest state (in terms of area) in India.

·         Goa is the smallest state (in terms of area) in India.

·         India’s population density is 382 as per census 2011. There is diversity in population density in India. Main reason behind the diversity is agricultural productivity and structures of settlements.

·         Uttar Pradesh is the largest state (in terms of population) in India.

·         Sikkim is the smallest state (in terms of population) in India.

·         Andaman and Nicobar group of Islands is the largest Union Territory (in terms of area) in India.

·         Lakshadweep is the smallest Union Territory (in terms of area) in India.

·         Delhi is the largest Union Territory (in terms of population) in India.

·         Lakshadweep is the smallest Union Territory (in terms of population) in India.

·          Madhya Pradesh is the largest plateaus state in India.

·         Rajasthan is the largest desert state in India.

·         Madhya Pradesh has maximum forest cover.

·         Total number of Islands in India in 248; 233 in Bay of Bengal and 25 in Arabian sea.

·         Eastern Coast is known as Coromandal coast.

·         Western coast is known as Malabar Coast.

·         Uttar Pradesh is the most urbanized state while Meghalaya is the least urbanized state.

·         Maharashtra has maximum urban population while Sikkim has least urban population.

·         Longest National Highway in India is NH-44, Which connect Srinagar to Kanyakumari (3745 km)

·          Total length of railway in India is (63273 km).

In India, the word ‘Purana’ has been used in place of Proterozoic. This rock system includes two divisions, which are as follow

(i)                  Cuddapah System à It consist of Cuddapah series of rocks around 1—1.5 billion year old. These rocks are predominantly sedimentary in their characteristics and consist of sandstones and limestones etc. These rocks are also found in Southern Chhattisgarh and Odisha.

(ii)                Vindhyan System Vindhyan series of rocks 0.5-1 billion years old. The vindhyan series is associated with the central Highlands of Indian plateau. This system ranges from regions of South-Eastern Rajasthan to Bundelkhand and Bihar

·         The Dravidian system consist of rocks aged between 300-500 millions of years.

·         Most of the rocks of this system have been covered by later rock developments and thus, are rarely visible.

·         Thick deposits of this series have been found at places in the states of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand though most of the rocks of these states are younger and belong to the next series

·         In comprised of the rock formations ranging from upper carboniferous to recent.

·         The Gondwana series of rocks are of sedimentary nature, distinctively include fossils of living organisms and they comprise of 98% of the coal reserves of the country and are largely found in Damodar valley in Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

·         Physiography is that branch of geography, which studies the present relief features of the Earth’s surface or of natural features in their causal relationships.

·         The physiographic diversity of India embraces fold mountains, flat plains one of the oldest plateaus of the world.

(i)                  The Great Himalayas of North

(ii)                Great Indian Plain

(iii)               Peninsular Plateau

(iv)              Costal Plains

(v)                Islands

·         The Northern mountain wall is a series of high mountain ranges stretching over the Northern borders of India.

·         The geologically young and structurally fold mountain ranges, the Himalayas run in a West-East direction from the Indus to the Brahmaputra.

·         They from an arc, which covers a distance of about 2500km. their width varies from 400km in Kashmir to 150km in Arunachal Pradesh.

·         The altitudinal variations are greater in the Eastern half than those in the Western half.