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C H A P T E R

INDIA’S GEOGRAPHY & LANDSCAPE

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T he British called India the “Jewel in the Crown” for good reason. If you look at a map of Southeast Asia, you can see that India dominates the region. It is the eighth largest country by land area and is about one-third the size of the United States. Geography India is vast, encompassing 2,042,610 square miles (3,287,263 sq. km), with the majority of its land area at 1,847,456 square miles (2,973,193 sq. km). The rest, 195,154 square miles (314,070 sq. km), is water. The Indian Ocean lies to the south, the Arabian Sea to the west, and the Bay of Bengal to the east. India borders several countries, including Myanmar (Burma), Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and China. And the nation borders two large bodies of water, the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. Sri Lanka and The Maldives are nearby in the Indian Ocean. India is definitely a nation of extremes in terms of terrain. In the south and along the Ganges River, the terrain is flat, with plains and deserts. In the north, the Himalayas tower over the landscape. About 60 percent of land is used for

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