Physical Features of India:

All of you have studied about the previous chapter and now this chapter ‘Physical features of India’ we will discuss about the great physical diversity.

  1. What are the main reasons of great diversity of physical features?

Answer: Indian great diversity in physical features occurred due to different reasons.

  • This lass mass developed in different geological time.
  • There are so many processes are acting over the land mass. Like weathering, erosion process or deposition process etc.
  • These variety also created by different tectonic activities. Like folding, faulting, volcanic activities etc. creates great variety of land masses over the sub-continent.
Question: Explain about great division of physiographic elements in India.

Answer: India has great variety of physiographic components which are as follows:

  • The northern Himalayas mountain,
  • The great northern plain,
  • Peninsular plateau,
  • The great desert areas,
  • The coastal plains and
  • Different islands.
The Himalayas:
  1. This lofty Himalaya Mountain is generally younger than the other part of India like Peninsular region.
  2. The Himalaya Mountain is located in the north of the country.
  3. Himalayas region is shaping by different erosional and deposional processes.
  4. So many big rivers are flowing in this mountainous area. Like The Ganga, the Brahmaputra or Indus etc.
  5. This is about 2400 km long and width varies 400 km in Kashmir region and 150 km in the Arunachal Himalayas region.
  6. So many highest mountain peaks are situated here. Like Mount Everest, Kanchenjunga, Karakoram etc.
The northern plain:
  1. This plain is the creation of Himalayan Rivers.
  2. So many rivers carry erosional materials and deposits on the foot hills region or its nearby area.
  3. This plain is divided into several parts through different rivers or their tributaries.
  4. Northern plain have very gentle slope tilted towards the south.
  5. This plain is mainly formed by alluvial soil.
  6. This region is agriculturally developed.
  7. After descending the rivers from the Himalayas region forms pebbles deposits narrow belt in about 8 to 16 km from the foot hills region. This region is called as Bhabar.
  8. A new swampy and marshy land is formed in the southern part of bhabar which is known as ‘Terai’.
  9. A large portion is made up of old alluvium which is known as ‘Bhangar’ and other is made up of new alluvium which is known as ‘Khadar’.
The Peninsular plateau:
  1. This is the oldest land mass of the Indian subcontinent. It is considered that this plateau region is much older than the Himalayas region.
  2. This plateau is made up of lava deposition through different vents are under laying the peninsular plateau region.
  3. This plateau is divided into two part central highland and the Deccan plateau.
  4. The northern part of the Narmada River is Malwa plateau called as the central highland.
  5. This plateau is surrounded by the Westernghat in the west and Easternghat in the east.
The Indian desert:
  1. The Indian desert is located in the western part of the country.
  2. Indian desert lies in the western margin of the Aravali Mountain.
  3. This region receives about below 150 mm per year.
  4. A large part of this region is located in Pakistan.
  5. Berchans, sand dunes are some landforms are found in this region.
The coastal plains:
  1. This coastal plain lies along the coast of Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal.
  2. Arabian coastal plain is divided into two Kankan and Malabar Coast from Mumbai to Goa and Goa to Kanyakumari respectively.
  3. The coast of Bay of Bengal also divided into two part Northern Circar coast in the Odisha and Coromandal coast means Tamil Nadu coast.
The islands:
  • Andaman Nicobar, Lakshadweep, etc. are the main islands of the country.