All in One : September 2026

Wednesday, 2 September 2026

KERALA PSC / INDIAN GEOGRAPHY / THE HIMALAYAS / NOTES / OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS / STUDY MATERIALS / GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

KERALA PSC / INDIAN GEOGRAPHY / THE HIMALAYAS / NOTES / OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS / STUDY MATERIALS / GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

· Mountains between the Indus and the Brahmaputra are called ‘the Himalayas’ meaning ‘the abode of snow’.

· It is one of the youngest mountain systems in the world and comprise mainly sedimentary rocks

· The Indus Valley in Kashmir and the Brahmaputra valley in Arunachal Pradesh are accepted as the western and the eastern limits of the Himalayas in India

· The Himalayan chain measures about 2500 km from west to east and width of this fold system varies between 150 and 400 km. It becomes narrower from west to east.

· According to the plate tectonics theory, the Indian plate moved northwards and its forward edge penetrated below the southern edge of the Tibetan plate. This resulted in the folding and uplift of the Himalayas.

· The Himalayas consist of three parallel ranges:

Ø The southernmost range, called the Siwalik or the Outer Himalaya is the lowest

Ø The ranges lying north of the Siwalik are known as the middle Himalayas or the Himachal

Ø The northernmost ranges of the Himalayas, known as Great Himalayas or the Himadri, are the highest with an average height of more than 6000 meters above the sea level.

· The Himadri contain some of the world’s highest peaks like Mount Everest, Kanchenjunga, Nandadevi and Nanga Parbat, Makalu and Dhaulagiri

· Mt. Everest (8848m) in Nepal is the world’s highest peak

· Kanchenjunga in Sikkim is the highest peak of the Himalayas in India (8598m)

· To the south of the Central Himalayas lies the second major range, the Lesser or Lower or Middle Himalayas or Himachal. It is separated from the Great Himalayas by the structural zone called the Main Central Thrust Zone.

· The Himalayan rivers have cut deep gorges in the Himachal

KERALA PSC / INDIAN GEOGRAPHY / THE HIMALAYAS / NOTES / OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS / STUDY MATERIALS / GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

KERALA PSC / INDIAN GEOGRAPHY / BOUNDARIES OF INDIA / NOTES / OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS / STUDY MATERIALS / GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

KERALA PSC / INDIAN GEOGRAPHY / BOUNDARIES OF INDIA / NOTES / OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS / STUDY MATERIALS / GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

· In the south, on the eastern side, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait separate India from Sri Lanka

· The boundary between India (Arunachal Pradesh) and China is known as McMohan Line

· The boundary line between the Imperial India and Afghanistan is known as Durand Line

· The boundary between India and Pakistan is known as Radcliff Line

· India is surrounded by the Indian ocean on its three sides, thus it is a subcontinent. The Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea are its two northward extensions. India and its neighbours Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan are known as the Indian sub-continent.

· The northern most tip, where the boundaries of China, India, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan meet is known as ‘Wakh Corridor’.

KERALA PSC / INDIAN GEOGRAPHY / BOUNDARIES OF INDIA / NOTES / OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS / STUDY MATERIALS / GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

KERALA PSC / INDIAN GEOGRAPHY / FASTEST CONTINENT / NOTES / OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS / STUDY MATERIALS / GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

KERALA PSC / INDIAN GEOGRAPHY / FASTEST CONTINENT / NOTES / OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS / STUDY MATERIALS / GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

India is entirely contained on the Indian Plate, a major tectonic plate that was formed when it split off from the ancient continent Gondwanaland. About 50 to 55 million years ago, in the Eocene epoch of the Cenozoic Era, the plate collided with Asia after covering a distance of 2000 to 3000km (1243 to 1864 miles), having moved faster than any other known plate, India is thus referred to as the ‘Fastest Continent’. This is causing the Eurasian Plate to deform, and the India Plate to compress at a rate of 4 mm/yr (0.15 in/yr).

KERALA PSC / INDIAN GEOGRAPHY / FASTEST CONTINENT / NOTES / OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS / STUDY MATERIALS / GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

KERALA PSC / INDIAN GEOGRAPHY / PHYSIOGRAPHY / NOTES / OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS / STUDY MATERIALS / GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

KERALA PSC / INDIAN GEOGRAPHY / PHYSIOGRAPHY / NOTES / OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS / STUDY MATERIALS / GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

· India is the seventh largest country in the world after Russia, Canada, US, China, Australia and Brazil extending over 32,87263 sq.km.

· The second largest populous country, India is home to around 17.5% percent of World’s population

· It accounts for 2.42 percent of the total world area

· India is the largest country in the Indian subcontinent lying entirely in the Northern Hemisphere

· The mainland extends from latitude 8º4’ north to 37º6’ north and from longitude 68º7’ east to 97º25’ east.

· India stretches 3214 km from north to south and 2933 km from east to west

· The total length of the coastline of main land and is nearly 6100 km and that of the land frontier is about 15200km. The total length of the coastline including that of the islands, is about 7500km.

· The Indian peninsula is bounded on the west by Arabian Sea, on the east by the Bay of Bengal on the north by Himalayas and on the South by the Indian Ocean

· The country shares it political borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan to the northwest, to the north with China, Nepal and Bhutan and to the east with Bangladesh and Myanmar

· The largest border that India shares is with Bangladesh

· The Southernmost point of the country lies in the Andaman and Nicobar Island and is known as Pygmalion point or Indira point which is located at 6º45’ north latitude.

· Tropic of Cancer passes through Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura and Mizoram.

· The Andaman Nicobar Island is situated in the Bay of Bengal, while Lakshadweep in the Arabian Sea

· 82º30’E latitude is considered as the Indian Standard Meridian. The local time of this longitude is taken as the Indian Standard Time (IST). This is 5½ hours of the Greenwich Mean Time.

KERALA PSC / INDIAN GEOGRAPHY / PHYSIOGRAPHY / NOTES / OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS / STUDY MATERIALS / GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

KERALA PSC / INDIAN GEOGRAPHY / THE WESTERN GHATS / NOTES / OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS / STUDY MATERIALS / GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

KERALA PSC / INDIAN GEOGRAPHY / THE WESTERN GHATS / NOTES / OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS / STUDY MATERIALS / GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

The Western Ghats or the Sahyadri constitute a mountain range along the western side of India. It is an UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the eight hottest hotspots of biological diversity in the world. This range runs north to south along the western edge of the Deccan Plateau, and separates the plateau from a narrow coastal plain along the Arabian Sea.

The range starts near the border of Gujarat and Maharashtra, south of the Tapti river, and runs approximately 1600km (990 mi) through the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala ending at Kanyakumari, at the southern tip of India.

These hills cover 160000 km2 (62,000 sq mi) and form the catchment area for complex riverine drainage systems that drain almost 40% of India. The Western Ghats block rainfall to the Deccan Plateau. The average elevation is around 1,200 m (3,900 ft).

The area is one of the world’s ten “Hottest biodiversity hotspots” and has over 5000 species of flowering plants, 139 mammal species, 508 bird species and 179 amphibian species; it is likely that many undiscovered species live in the Western Ghats. At least 325 globally threatened species occur in the Western Ghats.

KERALA PSC / INDIAN GEOGRAPHY / THE WESTERN GHATS / NOTES / OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS / STUDY MATERIALS / GENERAL KNOWLEDGE