India’s Geography encompasses one of the world’s most diverse land layouts. India is the Country that occupies most of the Indian subcontinent in Southern Asia. These diverse features make India one of the best topographic regions. In this chapter we are going to discuss the physical features of the Indian Subcontinent which includes its geographical extent, the different frontiers and the shared boundaries of our nation. We will also discuss the surrounding oceans, political divisions and the geological structure which comprises this huge sub continent.
The land of the ancient civilizations, India is a vast country with cultural and physical diversity, lying entirely in the Northern Hemisphere in the Continent of Asia. The word India has its origin in Greek Mythology which referred to the land of "Indoi" or people dwelling near the river Indus. India has been regarded by many names like- Aryavarta (The land of the Aryan race), Bharat, and Hindustan (the Land beyond the river Sindhu).
India forms part of South Asia; it is the seventh-largest country in the world in size. India has a vast geographical extent, extending from the snowy ranges of the Himalayas ranges in the north to the shores of the Indian Ocean in the south and the Arabian Sea in the south-west to the Bay of Bengal in the south-east. It also encompasses a diverse landmass that varies from permanently ice- covered lofty Himalayas to Great Indo-Gangetic Plains. It spans from vegetation devoid of Thar Desert in the west to vegetation abundant in the hilly north-east. The land mass is as old as the oldest land of Godwana in the Indian peninsula and relatively new like the coastal plains in both eastern and western India.
To the southeast and southwest of the mainland lie the islands of Andaman and Nicobar Island in the Bay of Bengal and Lakshadweep in the Arabian Sea respectively.
The mainland extends between Latitudes 8°4’N and 37°6’N and. longitudes 68°7’E and 97°25’E. Both latitudinal and longitudinal extent is about thirty degrees. India extends from Indira Ridge in Kashmir to Kanyakumari in Tami Nadu with 3214 kilometers. The west-east extent of India spans from Rann of Kutch in Gujarat in the west to Kibuthu (the easternmost town) in Arunachal Pradesh in the east with a distance of 2933 kilometers. The Indian landmass has an area of 3.28 million square kilometers, which is around 2.4 percent of the total geographical area of the world,
With 30° longitudinal differences between Saurashtra in the west and Arunachal Pradesh in the east, the local time difference is 120 minutes or 2 hours. Thus, Arunachal sees the sun rising 2 hours earlier than Saurashtra in the west. The standard meridian in India 82°30’E longitude passes through Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh. Indian standard time (82°30’E) passes through the states Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu.. The standard meridian helps to maintain time harmony across the country.
India's land boundary is around 15,200 kilometers in length. The length of the coastline, including the mainland and the islands (Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep ) is approximately 7516.6 kilometers. The length of the coastline of the mainland is about 6100 kilometers.
The Tropic of Cancer (23°30’N) divides the country into approximately two equal parts. With the Tropic of Cancer division, approximately half of India’s landmass lies in temperate land, while the other half lies in the tropical region. The Tropic of Cancer Passes through Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura, and Mizoram. However, India has always been treated as a tropical country than a temperate climate for two Primary reasons:
The four extreme points of India are-
