I would like to present to you the country of India. A country one-third the area of the United States (total land mass is 2,973,190 sq. kilometers) borders China on the northeast, Pakistan on the west, Nepal and Blutan to the north, and Burma and Bangladesh to the east. It is divided into three categorical geographic regions: the Gangetic Plain, the plateau region in the south, the Himalayan region in the north, which contains some of the highest mountains in the world and a central part. India has a population of 1,027,015,247 than speaks a whopping seventeen different languages.
India has several religions but six major religions are Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jinism. Under a federal republic government and abiding by a “constitution that forbids the practice of ‘untouchability,’ and legislation has been used to reserve quotas for former untouchables (and also for tribal peoples) in the legislatures, in education, and in the public services, the caste system continues to be influential”(India Peace & Culture). The country has grown to the second most populous country in the world.
Its population has to deal with a climate that is often desribed as tropical monsoon type. There are four seasons: “winter (January- February), hot weather summer ( march- may), rainy south-western monsoon ( June- September) and post- monsoon, also known as the north-east monsoon in the southern peninsula ( October- December). India’s climate is affected by two seasonal winds- the north-east monsoon and south-west monsoon. The north-east monsoon commonly known as winter monsoon blows sea to land after crossing the Indian Ocean, the Arabiab Sea and the Bay of Bengal.
The south-west monsoon brings most of the rainfall during the year in the country”(Geo. Of India). It has eight climatic zones that have only in common with one another monsoon rains. Within miles of one another you can shift from a freezing cold air to the dry air of the Rajasthan Desert. There are five main geographical regions in India: Himalaya mountains, Indo-Gangetic plains, Thar desert, Deccan plateau, and the Coastal plains. Beginning with the Himalaya’s to the north. The mountain range separates the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau.
It is home to 14 of the world’s highest peaks and is the planet’s highest mountain system. They stretch across five nation’s: Pakistan, India, China, Bhutan, and Nepal. An estimated 750 million people live on the areas around the Himalaya rivers, which includes Bangladesh. Vegetation across the range varies with climate and altitude. The lower regions show a forest that contains shrubery, plants, and trees that tend to fall off due to winter seasons. In the higher region of the Himalaya’s lies a vegetation area that consisted of temperate forests, conifers, and tundra.
The Himalaya’s are topped off with the snow-line in which whatever lies above is covered in snow year round. Also on the eastern side evergreen rainforests can be sighted. The Himalaya’s have a profound impact on the climate especially to the Tibetan plateau and Indian subcontinent. It prevents “frigid, dry Arctic winds from blowing south into the subcontinent, which keeps South Asia much warmer than corresponding temperate regions in the other continents. It also forms a barrier for the monsoon winds, keeping them from traveling northwards, and causing heavy rainfall in the Terai region”(Himalaya).
An example of the impact the mountain range gives to the population is that is a natural barrier to the movement of people for a long time. It has prevented people from China and Mongolia to meet those from the Indian subcontinent and “caused a significant difference in languages and customs between these regions. The Himalaya has also hindered trade routes and prevented military expeditions across its expanse”(Himalaya). Next are the Indo-Gangetic plains which cover roughly 21% of India. It is home to 40% of India’s population.
It is comprised of the states of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, and Haryana. The area is “a flat alluvial plain, there is a general slope is from west to east, with elevation ranging from 200 m above sea level in the west to 0 m above sea level in the east. The Indogangetic plains were formed from silt, brought by rivers emerging from The Himalayas”(India GEF). For cropping crops the plains are very efficient. The land is very much able to grow crops and is dominated by a rice-wheat cropping system. The land has three different types of soil. They are the entisols, inceptisols, and alfisols.
These soils receive moisture from an annual range of rainfall in the amount of 300 – 1600mm per year increasing from west to east. There are five moisture regimes in the Indo-Gangetic plains. They can be defined as arid, semi-arid, dry sub-humid, moist sub-humid, and humid. The third region of India is the Thar desert. Also known as the Great Indian Desert it spreads of four states in India Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Haryana. It is believed to be that the Thar Desert is between 4,000 to 10,000 years old. It consist of sandy regions that have many hills as well as gravel plains.
The desert has a diverisified habitat that consist of 23 species of lizard and 25 different species of snakes have been accounted for. Annual rainfall levels vary from 100 to 500mm and it rains most often between the months of July and September. The average temperature varies from a minimum of “24 degrees C to 26 degrees C in summer to 4 degrees C to 10 degrees C in winter”(The Thar Desert). One major problem in the desert is due to an increase in people and livestock it has led to a deterioration of the ecosystem resulting in lower soil fertility levels.
