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| Geography of India |
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Located in the Northern Hemisphere, the Tropic of Cancer divides India into two halves. India has five major geographical divisions – the Great Himalayan Range, Great Plains of northern India, the desert of Rajasthan, the Great Plateau and the Coastal Strips.
The Himalayan Range
The Great Himalayan Range stretches for about 2500 km like a wall from the northwest to the northeast. The width of this mountain range varies from 150 km to 400 km. The Himalayas consists of three parallel ranges – the Himadri (the northernmost range), the Himachal (Middle Himalayas) and the Shivalik (southernmost range). Himadri is the highest mountain range with an average height of 6000 meters above the sea level. The world’s highest mountain peak, Mount Everest (8,848 m) lies in Himadri. The height of the Himachal range varies between 3700 and 4500 meters. The famous hill stations - Shimla, Mussoorie, Nanital and Darjeeling lie in this range. The Shivalik is the lowest among the Himalayas with a height of between 900 meters to 1200 meters. |
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The Great Plains
To the south of the Himalayas, India has extensive and fertile plains from Sutlej in the west to the Brahmaputra in the east. Formed by the fine silt brought down by these rivers, the plains are made up of the alluvial soil. These northern plains consist of the Indus basin, Ganga-Brahmaputra basin, and the tributaries of these rivers.
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The Great Plateau
The Peninsula region lies to the south of the northern plains. Made up of hard metamorphic rocks, the region consists of the Malwa Plateau and the Deccan Plateau. The Malwa plateau is the northern part of the Great Plateau. It is bound by the Aravalli hills in the northwest and the Vindhyas in the south. The northeastern part of the Malwa plateau – the Chotanagpur plateau is the richest mineral producing region of India. The triangle shaped Deccan Plateau extends from the Satpura hills in the north to Kanyakumari (India’s southernmost tip).The Nilgiri, Sahyadri and the Cardamom hills – collectively known as the Western Ghats lie to the west of the Deccan plateau. |
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The Great Desert
The Great Desert of Rajasthan or the Thar Desert lies to the northwest of the Malwa plateau. It stretches from the Aravalli mountain range and extends till the interiors of Pakistan. Made up of sand, rocky hills and dry valleys, the region is sparsely populated. |
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The Coastal Strips
Long and narrow coastal strip surrounds the Deccan plateau along its eastern and western side. The Eastern Coastal Plain lies between the Eastern Ghats and the Bay of Bengal. Its northern part is known as the Northern Sircars and the southern part is known as the Coromandal Coast. It contains fertile and well-watered deltas formed by Krishna, Kaveri, Manhanadi and Godavari rivers. The Western Coastal Plain lies between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea. The Konkan Coast (northern part of the Western Coastal Plains) is wide and narrows as it moves southwards. The Malabar Coast (southern part of the Western Coastal Plains) is narrow and consists of a number of lagoons, backwaters and raised beaches. |
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