NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Social Science Geography Size and Location

Class 9 geography Chapter 1 India size and location

Being a student of class 9, you know that we are citizens of India, but have you ever wondered from where do India start and end? In this article, we will study about India’s size and location. This topic is from chapter 1 of Class 9 Geography syllabus.

Size and Location

India is a vast country having huge surface area. The total land area extends between longitudes 68°7’E-97°25’E and latitudes 8°4’N – 37°6’N. The country is divided into almost two equal parts by the Tropic of Cancer (23° 30’N). To the southeast and southwest of the India land area, lie the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the Lakshadweep islands in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea respectively.

According to United Nations Demographic year book 2009-2010, India is the seventh largest country in the world. The area of India extends up to 3.28 million square km. India’s total area accounts for about 2.4 percent of the total geographical area of the world. India has a land boundary of about 15,200 km and the total length of the coastline of the mainland including Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep is 7,516.6 km.

India is surrounded by Mountains in the northwest, north, and northeast. In the south it extends to the Indian Ocean, dividing into two parts, the Arabian Sea on the west and the Bay of Bengal in the east. We found that there is a time lag of two hours between Gujarat and Arunachal Pradesh. 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.

Brain Teaser

The difference in duration of day and night is felt at Kanyakumari but not in Kashmir.

Reason: – The latitudinal extent influences the duration of the day and night, as one move from south to north.

India and the World

‘Class 9 geography’ students will locate India on a world map.

If we will look in the above picture we can relate the below points:-

India is a southward extension of the Asian Continent.
European countries in the west and countries of East Asia connect by Trans Indian ocean routes providing a strategic central location to India.
The Deccan Peninsula protrudes into the Indian Ocean, thus helping India to establish close contact with West Asia, Africa, and Europe from the western coast and with Southeast and East Asia from the eastern coast.
India has the longest coastline on the Indian Ocean.
India is connected with the entire world in exchange of ideas and commodities through air routes, sea routes as well as road routes.

India Neighbors

India has 28 states and & union territories
India shares its land boundaries with Pakistan and Afghanistan in the northwest, China, Nepal and Bhutan in the north, Myanmar and Bangladesh in the east.
In the south, our neighbors are Sri Lanka and Maldives.