Geography and Environment of India

India—"Bharat" to most Indians—is the seventh largest country in the world. The Lakshadweep Islands off the southwest coast and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 750 miles off the southeast coast in the Bay of Bengal, belong to India. India stretches more than 2,000 miles from Jammu and Kashmir in the north to the southern tip of Tamil Nadu. It is 1,800 miles from Gujarat in the west to Arunachal Pradesh in the east. The topography is dominated in the far north by the majestic Himalayas, which include the world's highest peaks. From the Himalayan foothills to the Vindhyachal Range in central India spreads the vast, fertile, heavily populated Gangetic Plain. The sacred Ganges (Ganga) and the Yamuna Rivers dissect the Plain. South of the Vindhyachal Range lies the Deccan Plateau. The Western and Eastern Ghats lie along the southern coastlines.

Detailed geography