India: Physical Environment

India: Physical Environment 

The mainland of India, extends from Kashmir in the north to Kanniyakumari in the south and Arunachal Pradesh in the east to Gujarat in the west.

India with its area of 3.28 million sq. km accounts for 2.4 per cent of the world’s land surface area and stands as the seventh largest country in the world.

India is bounded by the Himalayas in the north, Hindukush and Sulaiman ranges in the northwest, Purvachal hills in the north-east and by the large expanse of the Indian ocean in the south, it forms a great geographic entity known as the Indian subcontinent. It includes the countries — Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and India.

This has provided the country with a coastline of 6,100 km in the mainland and 7,517 km in the entire geographical coast of the mainland plus the island groups Andaman and Nicobar located in the Bay of Bengal and the Lakshadweep in the Arabian Sea.

India can be divided into the following physiographic divisions:

(1) The Northern and North-eastern Mountains
(2) The Northern Plain
(3) The Peninsular Plateau
(4) The Indian Desert
(5) The Coastal Plains
(6) The Islands.

The Himalayas along with other Peninsular mountains are young, weak and flexible in their geological structure unlike the rigid and stable Peninsular Block. These mountains are tectonic in origin, dissected by fast-flowing rivers which are in their youthful stage.
Various landforms like gorges, V-shaped valleys, rapids, waterfalls, etc. are indicative of this stage.

The Himalayas can be divided into the following sub-divisions:
(i) Kashmir or Northwestern Himalayas
(ii) Himachal and Uttaranchal Himalayas
(iii) Darjiling and Sikkim Himalayas
(iv) Arunachal Himalayas
(v) Eastern Hills and Mountains.

The Peninsular plateau can be divided into three broad groups: 
(i) The Deccan Plateau
(ii) The Central Highlands
(iii) The Northeastern Plateau.

it can be broadly divided into two: 
(i) the western coastal
(ii) The eastern coastal plains.

There are two major island groups in India – 
one in the Bay of Bengal and the other in the Arabian Sea.

The Bay of Bengal island groups consist of about 572 islands/islets.
Some important mountain peaks in Andaman and Nicobar islands are Saddle peak (North Andaman – 738 m), Mount Diavolo (Middle Andaman – 515 m), Mount Koyob (South Andaman – 460 m) and Mount Thuiller (Great Nicobar – 642 m).


The two principal groups of islets include the Ritchie’s archipelago and the Labrynth island.