NCERT Class 6 - Social Science - Geography
Chapter 6 - OUR COUNTRY - INDIA
Table of Contents
⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️
INTRODUCTION
- India is bound by the lofty Himalayas. The Arabian Sea in the west, the Bay of Bengal in the east, and the Indian Ocean in the south.
- India has an area of about 3.28 million sq. km.
- The north-south extent from Ladakh to Kanyakumari is about 3,200 km.
- The east-west extent from Arunachal Pradesh to Kuchchh is about 2,900 km.
LOCATIONAL SETTING
- India is located in the northern hemisphere.
- The Tropic of Cancer (23°30'N) passes almost halfway through the country.
- The Tropic of Cancer crosses through 17 countries, with India being one of them.
- From south to north, the mainland of India extends between 8°4'N and 37°6'N latitudes.
- From west to east, India extends between 68°7'E and 97°25'E longitudes.
- The local time of longitude of 82°30'E has been taken as the Indian Standard Time.
- This meridian or longitude is also termed the Standard Meridian of India.
- The USA and Canada have seven and six time zones respectively.
- There are eleven time zones in Russia.
INDIA NEIGHBOURS
- There are seven countries that share land boundaries with India.
- Those long borders are shared with seven countries — China, Pakistan, Bhutan, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Nepal and Bangladesh.
- Pakistan and Afghanistan in the northwest, China , Nepal, and Bhutan in the North and Myanmar and Bangladesh in the east.
- Towards the south, India has two neighbouring island countries - Sri Lanka and Maldives.
- Sri Lanka is separated from India by the Palk Strait.
PHYSICAL DIVISIONS
- India is marked by a diversity of physical features such as mountains, plateaus, plains, coasts, and islands.
- The Himalayan mountains are divided into three main parallel ranges.
- The northernmost is the Great Himalayas or Himadri. The world’s highest peaks are located in this range.
- Middle Himalayas or Himachal lies to the south of Himadri.
- The Shiwalik is the southernmost range.
- The Northern Indian plains lie to the south of the Himalayas.
- These are formed by the alluvial deposits laid down by the rivers– the Indus, the Ganga, the Brahmaputra, and their tributaries.
- Alluvial deposits are very fine soils, brought by rivers and deposited in the river basins.
- In the western part of India lies the Great Indian Desert.
- To the south of the northern plains lies the Peninsular plateau. It is triangular in shape.
- Aravali hills, one of the oldest ranges of the world, border it on the northwest side.
- The Vindhyas and the Satpuras are important ranges, which are located in central India.
- Satpura is a range of hills that run parallel to the Vindhya range that they run parallel to the Narmada River.
- Narmada rises from Amarkantak Plateau in Madhya Pradesh.
- The rivers Narmada and Tapi flow through these ranges. These are west-flowing rivers that drain into the Arabian Sea.
- The Western Ghats or Sahyadri bound the plateau on the west and the Eastern Ghats provide the eastern boundary.
- the Western Ghats are almost continuous, the Eastern Ghats are broken and uneven.
- The western coastal plains are very narrow. The eastern Coastal plains are much broader.
- The rivers Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna, and Kaveri drain into the Bay of Bengal.
- The Sunderban Delta is formed where the Ganga and Brahmaputra flow into the Bay of Bengal.
- Below Two groups of islands also form part of India.
- Lakshadweep Islands are located in the Arabian Sea. These are coral islands located off the coast of Kerala.
- The Andaman and the Nicobar Islands lie to the southeast of the Indian mainland in the Bay of Bengal.
