GEOGRAPHY - INDIA -LOCATION

Subject : Geography
Chapter : The Gist of N.C.E.R.T

Topic: India - Location

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’s territorial limit further extends towards the sea upto 12 nautical miles (about 21.9 km) from the coast. (See the box for conversion).

Statute mile= 63,360 inches

Nautical mile= 72,960 inches

1 Statute mile= about 1.6 km (1.584 km)

1 Nautical mile= about 1.8 km (1.852 km)

Our southern boundary extends upto 6º45 N latitude in the Bay of Bengal.

If you work out the latitudinal and longitudinal extent of India, they are roughly about 30 degrees, whereas the actual distance measured from north to south extremity is 3,214 km, and that from east to west is only 2,933 km. What is the reason for this difference?

This difference is based on the fact that the distance between two longitudes decreases towards the poles whereas the distance between two latitudes remains the same everywhere.

From the values of latitude, it is understood that the southern part of the country lies within the tropics and the northern part lies in the sub-tropical zone or the warm temperate zone. This location is responsible for large variations in land forms, climate, soil types and natural vegetation in the country.

There is a general understanding among the countries of the world to select the standard meridian in multiples of 7º30 of longitude. That is why 82º30 E has been selected as the ‘standard meridian’ of India. Indian Standard Time is ahead of Greenwich Mean Time by 5 hours and 30 minutes.

There are some countries where there are more than one standard meridian due to their vast east-to-west extent. For example, the USA has seven time zones.
Now, let us observe the extent and its implications on the Indian people. From the values of longitude, it is quite discernible that there is a variation of nearly 30 degrees, which causes a time difference of nearly two hours between the easternmost and the westernmost parts of our country. What is the use of the standard meridian? While the sun rises in the northeastern states about two hours earlier as compared to Jaisalmer, the watches in Dibrugarh, Imphal in the east and Jaisalmer, Bhopal or Chennai in the other parts of India show the same time. Why does this happen?

Name a few place in India through which the standard meridian passes?

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.

Structure and Physiography

Current estimation shows that the earth is approximately 4600 million years old.
Based on the variations in its geological structure and formations, Indian can be divided into three geological divisions. These geological regions broadly follow the physical features:

• The Peninsular Block
• The Himalayas and other Peninsular Mountains
• Indo-Ganga-Brahmaputra Plain

The Peninsular Block

The northern boundary of the Peninsular Block may be taken as an irregular the running from Kachchh along the western flank of the Aravali Range near Delhi and then roughly parallel to the Yamuna and the Ganga as far as the Rajmahal Hills and the Ganga delta. Apart from these, the Karbi Anglong and the Meghalaya Plateau the the northeast and Rajasthan in the west are also extensions of this block. The northeastern parts are separated by the Media fault in West Bengal from the Chotanagpur plateau. In Rajasthan, the desert and other desert-like features overlay this block.

The Peninsula is formed essentially by a great complex of very ancient gneisses and granites, which constitutes as major part of it. Since the Cambrian period, the Peninsula has been standing like a rigid block with the exception of some of its western coast which is submerged beneath the sea and some other parts changed due to tectonic activity without affecting the original basement. As a part of the Indo-Australian Plate, it has been subjected to various vertical movements and block faulting. The rift valleys of the Narmada, the Tapi and the Mahanadi and the Satpura block mountains are some examples of it. The Peninsula mostly consists of relict and residual mountains like the Aravali hills, the Nallamala hills, the Javadi hills, the Veliconds hills, the Palkonda range and the Mahendragiri hills, etc. The river valleys here are shallow with low gradients.
Most of the east flowing rivers form deltas before entering into the Bay of Bengal. The deltas formed by the Mahanadi, the Krishna, the Kaveri and the Godavari are important examples.

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