India's external boundary and neighboring countries

India's external boundary and neighboring countries India shares its land frontiers with Pakistan in the west and north-west, Afghanistan in the north-west, China , Nepal, and Bhutan in the north, and Bangladesh and Myanmar in the east. India shares her water frontier with Sri Lanka. India shares her longest border with. Bangladesh and the shortest border with Afghanistan.

Country	Capital	Border length	Bordering states	Boundary Line
Bangladesh	Dhaka	4,096.7 km	5 (West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram)	Redcliffe Line
China	Beijing	3,488 km	5 (ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh)	McMahon Line & Johnson Line
Pakistan	Islamabad	3,323 km	5 (Jammu & Kashmir,Ladakh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat)	Radcliffe Line
Nepal	Kathmandu	1,751 km	5 (Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Sikkim, West Bengal)	-
Myanmar	Naypyidaw	1,643 km	4 (Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram)	-
Bhutan	Thimphu	699 km	4 (Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal)	-
Afghanistan	Kabul	106 km	1 (Ladakh)	Durand Line

India Pakistan border determination

• The boundary starts from Kashmir, passing through Punjab, western Rajasthan and extends up to Kutch region of Gujarat:
• The length of the boundary which extends from Punjab to Gujarat via Rajasthan being 3,323 km happens to be the second longest border after that of India-Bangladesh.
• Sutlej and Ravi form a natural boundary between India and Pakistan. Ravi river acts as a boundary line in Amritsar district of Punjab while Sutlej river creates boundary line between India and Pakistan, towards south of Firozpur district.

Radcliffe Line

• After partition, on 17th August, 1947 the boundary demarcated between India and Pakistan is known as Radcliffe Line. This line was determined by the Border Commission.
• As Cyril Radcliffe was the President of the Commission, the boundary line between India and Pakistan is named after him.
• Today, its western part still serves as the Indo-Pakistan border and the eastern part serves as the Indo-Bangladesh border.
• The commission had to separate the Punjab and Bengal province on the basis of Hindu and Muslim population.

Line of Control(LOC)

• The term Line of Control refers to the military control line between India and Pakistan occupied parts of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir.
• The line does not constitute a legally recognized international boundary, but remains the de-facto border, originally being Cease-Fire Line.
• It was re-designated as LoC following the Shimla Agreement on 3rd July, 1972. Pak Occupied Kashmir (PoK)
• With the help of local tribal people, Pakistan attacked Kashmir in 1947 and acquired a large area. The occupied land later came to be known as PoK.This part of land still remains under the acquisition of Pakistan Muraffarhad is the capital of PoK

India and Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement

• India and Bangladesh have signed a pact to operationalise the historic Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) between both nations.
• To give effect to this agreement, Parliament had passed a historical 100th Constitutional Amendment Act in 2015.
• It envisaged exchange of land including enclaves and adverse possessions from West Bengal, Meghalaya, Tripura and Assam.
• The swap has involved handing over 17,000 acres of land to Bangladesh in return for 7,000 acres in 111 enclaves in West Bengal, Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya. It was first decided under the 1974 Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) between India and Bangladesh, but never ratified by the Parliament.
• It also settles the question of citizenship for over 50,000 people in these enclaves.

Border Line between India and Myanmar

• Eastern Himalayan mountain ranges create boundary line between these two countries. (Mt. Ranges: Lushai, Patkai and Arakan Yoma).
• These ranges separate India from Myanmar along the Irrawaddy river.
• India-Myanmar Barrier is a border barrier that India is constructing to seal its 1,624 km long border with Myanmar, to curtail cross-border crimes including goods, arms, drug trafficking, insurgency and counterfeit Indian currency smuggling.
• Four north-east Indian states sharing the border with Burma (Myanmar) are Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur.
• Brahmaputra Valley in the east and Valley of Mekong, Irrawaddy and Salween along with passes of Een, Tungup Manipur, Tulu and Telai are very important as they connect India to Tibet and China..
• Free Movement Regime operates on the border of India and Myanmar, that allows movement of the tribal people within 16 km in India and Myanmar without any Visa.

McMahon Line

• The McMahon Line is a border line between Tibetan region of China and North-East Region of India, proposed by Henry McMahon on (27th April, 1914) at Shimla Convention between the British and Tibetan representatives.
• Currently, it remains an effective boundary between China and India. The line is named after Sir Henry McMahon, a Foreign Secretary of British India.
• The McMahon Line has been regarded by India as the legal national border, but China rejects the Shimla Accord and further the McMahon Line.

Line of Actual Control (LAC)

• Line of Actual Control is a real boundary line between India and China. LAC separated China occupied region (Aksai Chin) from Indian mainland in Jammu and Kashmir.
• The line passes through Ladakh, Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
• The line where armies of both the countries stand in front of each-other is termed Line of Actual Control. This situation arose during the Indo-China War of 1962.