The southernmost point of the country is the Pygmalion Point or Indira Point is located at 6° 45′ N latitude.
The north-south extent from Indira Col in Kashmir to Kanniyakumari is 3,214 km.
East-west width from the Rann of Kachachh to Arunachal Pradesh is 2,933 km.
With an area of 32,87,263 sq km, India is the seventh-largest country in the world.
India accounts for about 2.4 percent of the total surface area of the world.
The Tropic of Cancer passes through the middle of the country dividing it into two latitudinal halves.
The area to the north of Tropic of Cancer is nearly twice the area which lies to the south of it.
South of 22° north latitude, the country tapers off over 800 km into the Indian Ocean as a peninsula.
Eastern Coastal Plains of India
Western Coastal Plains of India
Utkal coast: Extending between the Chilika Lake and Kolleru Lake, they are much wider than the western coastal plains and undergo immense rainfall. Some of the crops that are cultivated here are rice, coconut, and banana.
Andhra coast: Extending between the Kolleru Lake and Pulicat Lake, the Andra coast forms a basin area for the Krishna and the Godavari rivers.
Coromandel coast: The Coromandel coast extends between Pulicat Lake and Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu. This Indian coastline remains dry in summer and receives rainfall during the winter due to the north-east monsoons.
Kachchh and Kathiawar coast: Kachchh, formerly a gulf is formed by the deposition of silt by the Indus. The area of Kachchh is covered with shallow water during the monsoons and is divided into Great Rann in the north and Little Rann in the east. Whereas, Kathiawar is situated to the south of Kachchh.
Konkan coast: It extends between Daman in the north to Goa in the south. Rice and cashew are the two important crops of this region.
Kanada coast: It extends between Marmagaon and Mangalore and is rich in iron deposits.
Malabar coast: Extending between Mangalore to Kanyakumari, the Malabar coast is relatively broad. This region also consists of lagoons running parallel to the coast in southern Kerala.
The temperate part (north of Tropic of Cancer) is twice the area of tropical part.
But India has always been treated as a tropical country for two different reasons – physical and cultural.
The country is separated from the rest of Asia by Himalayas.
Its climate is dominated by the tropical monsoons and the temperate air masses are blocked by Himalayas.
Entire area south of the Himalayas is essentially tropical from climatic point of view: Although the night temperatures in Winter at several places in North India may come down to the level of those prevailing in temperate lands, yet clear skies and intense insolation raise the day temperatures to a tropical level.
Settlements, diseases, agricultural and primary economic activities are all tropical in nature.
India has 15106.7 Km of land border running through 92 districts in 17 States and a coastline of 7516.6 Km [6100 km of mainland coastline + coastline of 1197 Indian islands] touching 13 States and Union Territories (UTs).
Barring Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Delhi, Haryana, and Telangana, all other States in the country have one or more international borders or a coastline and can be regarded as frontline States from the point of view of border management.
India’s longest border is with BANGLADESH while the shortest border is with Afghanistan.
The length of India’s land borders with neighboring countries is as under:
This is the second longest border of India, next only to its border with Bangladesh.
Five Indian states, namely Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh touch the Indian boundary with China.
The Sino-Indian border is generally divided into three sectors namely : (i) the Western sector, (ii) the Middle sector, and (iii) the Eastern sector.
Separates Jammu and Kashmir state of India from the Sinkiang (Xinjiang) province of China.
The western sector boundary is largely the outcome of the British policy towards the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
China claims the Aksai Chin district, the Changmo valley, Pangong Tso and the Sponggar Tso area of north-east Ladakh as well as a strip of about 5,000 sq km down the entire length of eastern Ladakh.
