Physical Geography of India — Location, Landforms and Rivers Made Simple
Learn India's location, its six physical divisions, the Himalayas, plateaus and river systems with the exact facts UPSC Prelims tests.
By the PadhoDost Team · 📖 8 min read · Updated 4 August 2026
Part of UPSC Civil Services prep🧠 India as a three-storey house
Picture India as a house with three floors built at different times. The oldest floor is the hard Peninsular Plateau in the south. On top of it, nature spread a flat carpet of soil, the Northern Plains. And standing guard at the north is a tall young wall, the Himalayas. If you remember these three parts and how each was formed, most of Physical Geography of India starts to make sense.
Physical Geography of India is about the land itself: where India sits on the globe, how it is shaped, its mountains, plains, plateaus, rivers, coasts and islands. For UPSC Prelims you must know names, directions and a few key numbers. This explainer teaches the durable facts you can rely on in the exam.
1. Location and Extent
Fix these numbers in your memory
- ✓India lies between latitudes 8°4'N and 37°6'N, and longitudes 68°7'E and 97°25'E.
- ✓The Tropic of Cancer (about 23.5°N) divides India almost into two halves and passes through 8 states.
- ✓India's Standard Meridian is 82°30'E, passing through Mirzapur near Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh. Indian Standard Time (IST) is 5 hours 30 minutes ahead of GMT.
- ✓India is the 7th largest country in the world by area, covering about 3.28 million sq km (about 2.4% of world land area).
📝 The 8 states the Tropic of Cancer passes through
From west to east: Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura, Mizoram.
A common memory hook: 'Ganga Ram Made Chennai Journey West To Mizoram' (first letters).
Note: it does NOT pass through Maharashtra or Odisha, a favourite trap in exams.
2. The Physiographic Divisions
Geographers divide India into six major physical (physiographic) divisions. Learn them as a list, because Prelims often asks you to match a feature to its division.
The six physiographic divisions of India
- 1The Northern and North-Eastern Mountains (the Himalayas).
- 2The Northern Plains (Indo-Gangetic-Brahmaputra plains).
- 3The Peninsular Plateau (the oldest landmass).
- 4The Indian Desert (the Thar, in the west).
- 5The Coastal Plains (western and eastern coasts).
- 6The Islands (Andaman & Nicobar in the Bay of Bengal, Lakshadweep in the Arabian Sea).
3. The Himalayas — a young fold wall
The Himalayas are young fold mountains, formed when the Indian plate pushed into the Eurasian plate. They are still rising slowly. Learn them in two ways: from south to north (by height) and from west to east (by region).
| Range (south to north) | Also called | Key point |
|---|---|---|
| Shiwaliks | Outer Himalayas | Lowest; longitudinal valleys called 'Duns' (e.g. Dehra Dun) |
| Lesser Himalayas | Himachal | Famous hill stations: Shimla, Mussoorie, Nainital |
| Greater Himalayas | Himadri | Highest and continuous; holds the tallest peaks and glaciers |
| Trans-Himalayas | Tibetan/Karakoram side | North of Himadri; includes the Karakoram range |
From west to east, the Himalayas are divided by rivers into: Punjab (Kashmir) Himalayas, Kumaon Himalayas, Nepal Himalayas, and Assam Himalayas. The Eastern hills and mountains (Purvachal) — such as the Patkai, Naga, Manipur and Mizo hills — curve southward along India's eastern border.
4. Northern Plains and the Peninsular Plateau
Northern Plains — a young carpet of soil
- ✓Formed by alluvium (river-deposited soil) from the Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra systems. Very fertile, densely populated.
- ✓Bhabar: a narrow belt of pebbles at the foot of the hills where streams disappear underground.
- ✓Terai: the marshy, re-emerged water belt just south of the Bhabar.
- ✓Bhangar: older alluvium, slightly raised, less fertile. Khadar: newer alluvium of flood plains, most fertile.
The Peninsular Plateau is the oldest and most stable part of India, made of hard igneous and metamorphic rock, and was once part of the ancient landmass Gondwana. Its two broad parts are the Central Highlands (north of the Narmada) and the Deccan Plateau (south of the Narmada). It is bordered by the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats.
| Feature | Western Ghats (Sahyadri) | Eastern Ghats |
|---|---|---|
| Continuity | Continuous, can be crossed only through passes | Broken and discontinuous, cut by rivers |
| Height | Higher (average about 900-1600 m) | Lower (average about 600 m) |
| Highest peak | Anamudi (about 2,695 m), in Kerala | Jindhagada Peak / Arma Konda (about 1,690 m), Andhra Pradesh; much lower |
| Rainfall | Cause heavy rain on the windward (west) side | Drier |
5. The River Systems
India's rivers fall into two families. Himalayan rivers are perennial (they flow all year) because they are fed by both rain and melting snow, and they often make large deltas. Peninsular rivers are mostly rain-fed and seasonal, and flow in fixed, older valleys.
River facts worth memorising
- ✓The three great Himalayan systems are the Indus, the Ganga and the Brahmaputra.
- ✓The Godavari is the largest peninsular river and is nicknamed the 'Dakshin Ganga' (Ganga of the South).
- ✓The Brahmaputra is called the Tsangpo in Tibet and the Jamuna in Bangladesh (do not confuse this with the Yamuna).
- ✓The Narmada and Tapi flow west in rift valleys (down-dropped land between faults) — a classic Prelims point.
🧠 Why peninsular rivers don't wander
Think of the old Peninsular Plateau as dried, hardened clay and the Northern Plains as fresh soft mud. A stick dragged through hard clay stays in its groove — that is why peninsular rivers keep to fixed valleys and don't change course much. A stick in soft mud slides around easily — that is why Himalayan rivers on the young plains keep shifting, flooding and building big deltas.
⚡ Quick check
Which pair of Indian rivers flows westward through rift valleys into the Arabian Sea?
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