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India
Coasts and Borders
India has 7,000 kilometers of seacoast and shares 14,000 kilometers
of land frontier with six nations: Pakistan, China, Nepal, Bhutan,
Bangladesh, and Burma. India claims a twelve-nautical-mile territorial
sea and an exclusive economic zone of 200 nautical miles. The territorial
seas total 314,400 square kilometers.
In the mid-1990s, India had boundary disagreements with Pakistan,
China, and Bangladesh; border distances are therefore approximations.
The partition of India in 1947 established two India-Pakistan frontiers:
one on the west and one on the east (East Pakistan became Bangladesh
in 1971).
Disputes over the state of Jammu and Kashmir led to hostilities
between India and Pakistan in 1947. The January 1, 1949, cease-fire
arranged by the United Nations (UN) divided control of Kashmir.
India controls Jammu, the Vale of Kashmir, and the capital, Srinagar,
while Pakistan controls the mountainous area to the northwest. Neither
side accepts a divided Kashmir as a permanent solution. India regards
as illegal the 1963 China-Pakistan border agreement, which ceded
to China a portion of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. The two sides
also dispute the Siachen Glacier near the Karakoram Pass. Further
India-Pakistan hostilities in the 1965 war were settled through
the Soviet-brokered Tashkent Declaration.
In 1968 an international tribunal settled the dispute over the
Rann of Kutch, a region of salt flats that is submerged for six
months of the year in the state of Gujarat. The following year,
a new border was demarcated that recognized Pakistan's claim to
about 10 percent of the area.
In 1992 India completed fencing most of the 547-kilometer-long
section of the boundary between the Indian state of Punjab and the
Pakistani province of Punjab. This measure was undertaken because
of the continuing unrest in the region caused by both ethnic and
religious disputes among the local Indian population and infiltrators
from both sides of the frontier. The more rugged terrain north of
Punjab along the entire cease-fire line between India and Pakistan
in Jammu and Kashmir continues to be subject to infiltration and
local strife .
The 2,000-kilometer-long border with China has eastern, central,
and western sections. In the western section, the border regions
of Jammu and Kashmir have been the scene of conflicting claims since
the nineteenth century. China has not accepted India's definitions
of the boundary and has carried out defense and economic activities
in parts of eastern Kashmir since the 1950s. In the 1960s, China
finished construction of a motor road across Aksai Chin (a region
under dispute between India and China), the main transportation
route linking China's Xinjiang-Uygur Autonomous Region and Tibet.
In the eastern section, the China-India boundary follows the McMahon
Line laid down in 1914 by Sir Arthur Henry McMahon, the British
plenipotentiary to a conference of Indian, British, and Chinese
representatives at Simla (now known as Shimla, Himachal Pradesh).
The Simla Convention, as the agreement is known, set the boundary
between India and Tibet. Although the British and Tibetan representatives
signed the agreement on July 3, 1914, the Chinese delegate declined
to sign. The line agreed to by Britain and Tibet generally follows
the crest of the eastern Himalayas from Bhutan to Burma. It serves
as a legal boundary, although the Chinese have never formally accepted
it. China continued to claim roughly the entire area of Arunachal
Pradesh south of the McMahon Line in the early 1990s. In 1962 China
and India fought a brief border war in this region, and China occupied
certain areas south of the line for several months . India and China
took a major step toward resolving their border disputes in 1981
by opening negotiations on the issue. Agreements and talks held
in 1993 and 1995 eased tensions along the India-China border . Sikkim,
which became an Indian state in 1975, forms the small central section
of India's northern border and lies between Nepal and Bhutan.
India's border with Bangladesh is essentially the same as it was
before East Pakistan became Bangladesh in 1971. Some minor disputes
continued to occur over the size and number of the numerous enclaves
each country had on either side of the border. These enclaves were
established during the period from 1661 to 1712 during fighting
between the Mughal Empire and the principality of Cooch Behar. This
complex pattern of enclaves was preserved by the British administration
and passed on intact to India and Pakistan.
The 1,300-kilometer frontier with Burma has been delimited but
not completely demarcated. On March 10, 1967, the Indian and Burmese
governments signed a bilateral treaty delimiting the boundary in
detail. India also has a maritime boundary with Burma in the area
of the northern Andaman Islands and Burma's Coco Islands in the
Bay of Bengal. India's borders with Nepal and Bhutan have remained
unchanged since the days of British rule. In 1977 India signed an
accord with Indonesia demarcating the entire maritime boundary between
the two countries. One year earlier, a similar accord was signed
with the Maldives.
Rivers
The country's rivers are classified as Himalayan, peninsular, coastal,
and inland-drainage basin rivers. Himalayan rivers are snow fed
and maintain a high to medium rate of flow throughout the year.
The heavy annual average rainfall levels in the Himalayan catchment
areas further add to their rates of flow. During the monsoon months
of June to September, the catchment areas are prone to flooding.
The volume of the rain-fed peninsular rivers also increases. Coastal
streams, especially in the west, are short and episodic. Rivers
of the inland system, centered in western Rajasthan state, are few
and frequently disappear in years of scant rainfall. The majority
of the South Asia's major rivers flow through broad, shallow valleys
and drain into the Bay of Bengal.
The Ganga River basin, India's largest, includes approximately
25 percent of the nation's area; it is bounded by the Himalayas
in the north and the Vindhya Range to the south. The Ganga has its
source in the glaciers of the Greater Himalayas, which form the
frontier between India and Tibet in northwestern Uttar Pradesh.
Many Indians believe that the legendary source of the Ganga, and
several other important Asian rivers, lies in the sacred Mapam Yumco
Lake (known to the Indians as Manasarowar Lake) of western Tibet
located approximately 75 kilometers northeast of the India-China-Nepal
tripoint. In the northern part of the Ganga River basin, practically
all of the tributaries of the Ganga are perennial streams. However,
in the southern part, located in the states of Rajasthan and Madhya
Pradesh, many of the tributaries are not perennial.
The Brahmaputra has the greatest volume of water of all the rivers
in India because of heavy annual rainfall levels in its catchment
basin. At Dibrugarh the annual rainfall averages 2,800 millimeters,
and at Shillong it averages 2,430 millimeters. Rising in Tibet,
the Brahmaputra flows south into Arunachal Pradesh after breaking
through the Great Himalayan Range and dropping rapidly in elevation.
It continues to fall through gorges impassable by man in Arunachal
Pradesh until finally entering the Assam Valley where it meanders
westward on its way to joining the Ganga in Bangladesh.
The Mahanadi, rising in the state of Madhya Pradesh, is an important
river in the state of Orissa. In the upper drainage basin of the
Mahanadi, which is centered on the Chhattisgarh Plain, periodic
droughts contrast with the situation in the delta region where floods
may damage the crops in what is known as the rice bowl of Orissa.
Hirakud Dam, constructed in the middle reaches of the Mahanadi,
has helped in alleviating these adverse effects by creating a reservoir.
The source of the Godavari is northeast of Bombay (Mumbai in the
local Marathi language) in the state of Maharashtra, and the river
follows a southeasterly course for 1,400 kilometers to its mouth
on the Andhra Pradesh coast. The Godavari River basin area is second
in size only to the Ganga; its delta on the east coast is also one
of the country's main rice-growing areas. It is known as the "Ganga
of the South," but its discharge, despite the large catchment area,
is moderate because of the medium levels of annual rainfall, for
example, about 700 millimeters at Nasik and 1,000 millimeters at
Nizamabad.
The Krishna rises in the Western Ghats and flows east into the
Bay of Bengal. It has a poor flow because of low levels of rainfall
in its catchment area--660 millimeters annually at Pune. Despite
its low discharge, the Krishna is the third longest river in India.
The source of the Kaveri is in the state of Karnataka, and the
river flows southeastward. The waters of the river have been a source
of irrigation since antiquity; in the early 1990s, an estimated
95 percent of the Kaveri was diverted for agricultural use before
emptying into the Bay of Bengal. The delta of the Kaveri is so mature
that the main river has almost lost its link with the sea, as the
Kollidam, the distributary of the Kaveri, bears most of the flow.
The Narmada and the Tapti are the only major rivers that flow into
the Arabian Sea. The Narmada rises in Madhya Pradesh and crosses
the state, passing swiftly through a narrow valley between the Vindhya
Range and spurs of the Satpura Range. It flows into the Gulf of
Khambhat (or Cambay). The shorter Tapti follows a generally parallel
course, between eighty kilometers and 160 kilometers to the south
of the Narmada, flowing through the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat
on its way into the Gulf of Khambhat.
Harnessing the waters of the major rivers that flow from the Himalayas
is an issue of great concern in Nepal, India, and Bangladesh. Issues
of flood control, drought prevention, hydroelectric power generation,
job creation, and environmental quality--but also traditional lifestyles
and cultural continuities--are at stake as these countries grapple
with the political realities, both domestic and international, of
altering the flow of the Ganga and Brahmaputra. Although India,
Nepal, and Bangladesh seek to alleviate problems through cooperation
over Himalayan rivers, irrigation projects altering the flow of
Punjab-area rivers are likely to continue to be an irritant between
India and Pakistan--countries between which cooperation is less
likely to occur--in the second half of the 1990s. Internally, large
dam projects, such as one on the Narmada River, are also controversial
.
Data as of September 1995
India
Climate
The Himalayas isolate South Asia from the rest of Asia. South of
these mountains, the climate, like the terrain, is highly diverse,
but some geographers give it an overall, one-word characterization--violent.
What geographers have in mind is the abruptness of change and the
intensity of effect when change occurs--the onset of the monsoon
rains, sudden flooding, rapid erosion, extremes of temperature,
tropical storms, and unpredictable fluctuations in rainfall. Broadly
speaking, agriculture in India is constantly challenged by weather
uncertainty.
It is possible to identify seasons, although these do not occur
uniformly throughout South Asia. The Indian Meteorological Service
divides the year into four seasons: the relatively dry, cool winter
from December through February; the dry, hot summer from March through
May; the southwest monsoon from June through September when the
predominating southwest maritime winds bring rains to most of the
country; and the northeast, or retreating, monsoon of October and
November.
The southwest monsoon blows in from sea to land. The southwest
monsoon usually breaks on the west coast early in June and reaches
most of South Asia by the first week in July . Because of the critical
importance of monsoon rainfall to agricultural production, predictions
of the monsoon's arrival date are eagerly watched by government
planners and agronomists who need to determine the optimal dates
for plantings.
Theories about why monsoons occur vary. Conventionally, scientists
have attributed monsoons to thermal changes in the Asian landmass.
Contemporary theory cites other factors--the barrier of the Himalayas
and the sun's northward tilt (which shifts the jet stream north).
The hot air that rises over South Asia during April and May creates
low-pressure areas into which the cooler, moisture-bearing winds
from the Indian Ocean flow.These circumstances set off a rush of
moisture-rich air from the southern seas over South Asia.
The southwest monsoon occurs in two branches. After breaking on
the southern part of the Peninsula in early June, the branch known
as the Arabian Sea monsoon reaches Bombay around June 10, and it
has settled over most of South Asia by late June, bringing cooler
but more humid weather. The other branch, known as the Bay of Bengal
monsoon, moves northward in the Bay of Bengal and spreads over most
of Assam by the first week of June. On encountering the barrier
of the Great Himalayan Range, it is deflected westward along the
Indo-Gangetic Plain toward New Delhi. Thereafter the two branches
merge as a single current bringing rains to the remaining parts
of North India in July.
The withdrawal of the monsoon is a far more gradual process than
its onset. It usually withdraws from northwest India by the beginning
of October and from the remaining parts of the country by the end
of November. During this period, the northeast winds contribute
to the formation of the northeast monsoon over the southern half
of the Peninsula in October. It is also known as the retreating
monsoon because it follows in the wake of the southwest monsoon.
The states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Kerala receive most of
their rainfall from the northeast monsoon during November and December.
However, 80 percent of the country receives most of its rainfall
from the southwest monsoon from June to September.
South Asia is subject to a wide range of climates--from the subfreezing
Himalayan winters to the tropical climate of the Coromandel Coast
and from the damp, rainy climate in the states of Assam and West
Bengal to the arid Great Indian Desert. Based on precipitation and
temperature, experts define seven climatic regions: the Himalayas,
Assam and West Bengal, the Indo-Gangetic Plain, the Western Ghats
and coast, the Deccan (the interior of the Peninsula south of the
Narmada River), and the Eastern Ghats and coast .
In the Himalayan region, climate varies with altitude. At about
2,000 meters, the average summer temperature is near 18°C; at
4,500 meters, it is rarely above 0°C. In the valleys, summer
temperatures reach between 32°C and 38°C. The eastern Himalayas
receive as much as 1,000 to 2,000 millimeters more precipitation
than do the Western Himalayas, and floods are common.
Assam and West Bengal are extremely wet and humid. The southeastern
part of the state of Meghalaya has the world's highest average annual
rainfall, some 10,900 millimeters.
The Indo-Gangetic Plain has a varied climatic pattern. Rainfall
and temperature ranges vary significantly between the eastern and
western extremes . In the Peninsula region, the Western Ghats and
the adjoining coast receive heavy rains during the southwest monsoon.
Rainfall in the peninsular interior averages about 650 millimeters
a year, although there is considerable variation in different localities
and from year to year. The Eastern Ghats receive less rainfall than
the western coast. Rainfall there ranges between 900 and 1,300 millimeters
annually.
The northern Deccan region, bounded by the Western Ghats, the Vindhya
Range and the Narmada River to the north, and the Eastern Ghats,
receives most of its annual rainfall during the summer monsoon season.
The southern Deccan area is in a "rain shadow" and receives only
fifty to 1,000 millimeters of rainfall a year. Temperature ranges
are wide--from some 15°C to 38°C--making this one of India's
most comfortable climatic areas.
Throughout most of non-Himalayan India, the heat can be oppressive
and sometimes, such as was experienced in 1994 and 1995, literally
can be a killer. Hot, relatively dry weather is the norm before
the southwest monsoons, which, along with heavy rains and high humidity,
bring cloud cover that lowers temperatures slightly. Temperatures
reach the upper 30s°C and can reach as high as 48°C during
the day in the premonsoon months.
Data as of September 1995
India
Earthquakes
India has experienced some of the world's most devastating earthquakes.
Some 19,000 people died in Kangra District, northeastern Himachal
Pradesh, in April 1905, and more than 30,000 died in Maharashtra
and Andhra Pradesh in September 1993. Although resulting in less
extensive loss of life, major earthquakes occurred in Assam in 1950
(more than 1,500 killed) and in Uttarkashi District, Uttar Pradesh,
in 1991 (1,600 killed).
Data as of September 1995
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