Hinglish

Coasts, Islands and the Northeast

Class 7 Social Science · Chapter 1: Geographical Diversity of India · NCERT Exploring Society: India and Beyond section 1.5

Learn

India's coastline is over 7500 km long. The west coast, from Gujarat to Kerala, is narrow, with the Western Ghats close to the sea; short swift rivers form estuaries, and ports like Mumbai have traded for millennia. The wider east coast, from the Ganga delta to Kanyakumari, has big river deltas (fan-shaped land built from river sediment) and lagoons like Chilika and Pulicat.

India has two island groups. Lakshadweep in the Arabian Sea is 36 coral islands near Kerala. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal are over 500 mostly volcanic islands, like outposts watching the ocean; Barren Island is India's only active volcano. Freedom fighters were imprisoned in the Cellular Jail here. Ancient tribes have lived on these islands for tens of thousands of years.

Back on the mainland, the Sundarbans spread across the delta of the Ganga and Brahmaputra, shared with Bangladesh: mangrove forests and home of the Royal Bengal Tiger. Further east, the Garo, Khasi and Jaintia hills of the Meghalaya Plateau get some of the highest rainfall in the world. Mawlynnong village is famous for cleanliness and living root bridges woven from tree roots over many years.

Explore: where in India?

  1. Sort each place into its region.

Remember

  • India's long coast: a narrow west coast with estuaries and a wide east coast with deltas.
  • Lakshadweep (coral), Andaman and Nicobar (volcanic), the Sundarbans and the rainy Northeast add to the diversity.

Quick check

Lakshadweep islands are made of …

  1. coral
  2. volcanic rock only
  3. sand dunes
  4. ice
Answer

coral. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are mostly volcanic.

Think about it

India is sometimes called a "mini-continent". Why?

One answer

It has almost every kind of landform and climate a continent has: snowy mountains, cold and hot deserts, fertile plains, an old plateau, long coasts, islands and rainforests.

Practice

Practise with fresh questions at three levels (easy, medium, hard), some answered hands-on, with hints and worked answers. Get 4 of your last 5 right to finish the topic.