India Size and Location Class 9 Notes Geography - Chapter 1

Chapter: 1

What are India-Size and Location ?

India’s Location

  • Lies entirely in Northern hemisphere between latitudes 8°4’N and 37°6’N and longitudes 68°7’E and 97°25’E.
  • India is located in the center of the world between east and west Asia.
  • Divided by Tropic of Cancer (23°30’N) in almost two equal parts.
  • To the southeast and southwest of the mainland, lie the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the Lakshadweep islands in Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea respectively.

It’s Size

  • Total area of India is 3.28 million square km which is 2.4% of total area of the world.
  • It has land boundary of about 15,200km and the total length of the coast line of the mainland including Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands is 7,516.6km.
  • It is the seventh largest country in the world in terms of landmass.
  • India is bounded by the young fold mountains in the northwest, north and northeast.
  • South of about 22° north latitude, it begins to taper, and extends towards the Indian Ocean, dividing it into two seas, the Arabian Sea on the west and the Bay of Bengal on its east.
  • The latitudinal and longitudinal extent of the mainland is about 30°. Despite this fact, the east-west extent appears to be smaller than the north-south extent.
  • From Gujarat to Arunachal Pradesh, there is a time lag of two hours. Hence, time along the Standard Meridian of India (82°30’E) passing through Mirzapur (in Uttar Pradesh) is taken as the standard time for the whole country.

It’s Neighbours

  • India is comprised of 28 states and 8 union territories and shares its land boundary with:

(a) Northwest: Pakistan and Afghanistan

(b) North: China , Nepal and Bhutan

(c) East: Myanmar and Bangladesh

(d) South: Sri Lanka and Maldives (Sri Lanka is separated from India by a narrow channel of sea formed by the Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannar, while Maldives Islands are situated to the south of the Lakshadweep Islands.)