India (Hindi: Bhārat), officially the Republic of India (Hindi: Bhārat Gaṇarājya),[20] is a country in

South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the
most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea
on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to
the west;[e] China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the
Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; its Andaman and Nicobar Islands
share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.

Republic of India
Bhārat Gaṇarājya
Horizontal tricolour flag bearing, from top to bottom, deep saffron, white, and green horizontal
bands. In the centre of the white band is a navy-blue wheel with 24 spokes.
Flag
Three lions facing left, right, and toward viewer, atop a frieze containing a galloping horse, a 24-
spoke wheel, and an elephant. Underneath is a motto: "सत्यमे व जयते".
State emblem
Motto: "Satyameva Jayate" (Sanskrit)
"Truth Alone Triumphs"[1]
Anthem: "Jana Gana Mana"[2][3]
"Thou Art the Ruler of the Minds of All People"[4][2]

National song
"Vande Mataram" (Sanskrit)
"I Bow to Thee, Mother"[a][1][2]
Image of a globe centred on India, with India highlighted.
Area controlled by India shown in dark green;
regions claimed but not controlled shown in light green
Capital
New Delhi
28°36′50″N 77°12′30″E
Largest city
Mumbai
18°58′30″N 72°49′33″E
Official languages
HindiEnglish[b][7]
Recognised regional languages
State level and
Eighth Schedule[8]
AssameseBengaliBodoDogriGujaratiKannadaKashmiriKokborokKonkaniMaithiliMalayalamManipuriM
arathiMizoNepaliOdiaPunjabiSanskritSantaliSindhiTamilTeluguUrdu
National language
None[9][10][11]
Religion
79.8% Hinduism
14.2% Islam
2.3% Christianity
1.7% Sikhism
0.7% Buddhism
0.4% Jainism
0.23% Unaffiliated
0.65% others[12]
See Religion in India
Demonym(s)
Indian
Membership
UN, WTO, BRICS, SAARC, SCO, G8+5, G20, Commonwealth of Nations
Government
Federal parliamentary constitutional republic
• President
Ram Nath Kovind
• Vice President
Venkaiah Naidu
• Prime Minister
Narendra Modi
• Chief Justice
Sharad Arvind Bobde
• Speaker of the Lok Sabha
Om Birla
• Leader of the Rajya Sabha
Thawar Chand Gehlot
Legislature
Parliament
• Upper house
Rajya Sabha
• Lower house
Lok Sabha
Independence from the United Kingdom
• Dominion
15 August 1947
• Republic
26 January 1950
Area
• Total
3,287,263[6] km2 (1,269,219 sq mi)[c] (7th)
• Water (%)
9.6
Population
• 2018 estimate
Increase1,352,642,280[13][14] (2nd)
• 2011 census
1,210,854,977[15][16] (2nd)
• Density
405.0/km2 (1,048.9/sq mi) (31st)
GDP (PPP)
2019 estimate
• Total
Increase $11.326 trillion[17] (3rd)
• Per capita
Increase $8,378[17] (119th)
GDP (nominal)
2019 estimate
• Total
Increase $2.936 trillion[17] (5th)
• Per capita
Increase $2,172[17] (139th)
Gini (2013)
33.9[18]
medium · 79th
HDI (2018)
Increase 0.647[19]
medium · 129th
Currency
Indian rupee (₹) (INR)
Time zone
UTC+05:30 (IST)
DST is not observed
Date format
dd-mm-yyyy
yyyy-mm-dd[d]
Driving side
left
Calling code
+91
ISO 3166 code
IN
Internet TLD
.in (others)
Modern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa no later than 55,000 years ago.[21]
Their long occupation, initially in varying forms of isolation as hunter-gatherers, has made the region
highly diverse, second only to Africa in human genetic diversity.[22] Settled life emerged on the
subcontinent in the western margins of the Indus river basin 9,000 years ago, evolving gradually into
the Indus Valley Civilisation of the third millennium BCE.[23] By 1200 BCE, an archaic form of
Sanskrit, an Indo-European language, had diffused into India from the northwest, unfolding as the
language of the Rigveda, and recording the dawning of Hinduism in India.[24] The Dravidian
languages of India were supplanted in the northern regions.[25] By 400 BCE, stratification and
exclusion by caste had emerged within Hinduism,[26] and Buddhism and Jainism had arisen,
proclaiming social orders unlinked to heredity.[27] Early political consolidations gave rise to the
loose-knit Maurya and Gupta Empires based in the Ganges Basin.[28] Their collective era was
suffused with wide-ranging creativity,[29] but also marked by the declining status of women,[30]
and the incorporation of untouchability into an organised system of belief.[f][31] In south India, the
Middle kingdoms exported Dravidian-languages scripts and religious cultures to the kingdoms of
southeast Asia.[32]

In the early medieval era, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism put down roots on India's
southern and western coasts.[33] Armies from Central Asia intermittently overran India's plains,[34]
eventually establishing the Delhi sultanate, and drawing northern India into the cosmopolitan
networks of medieval Islam.[35] In the 15th century, the Vijayanagara Empire created a long-lasting
composite Hindu culture in south India.[36] In the Punjab, Sikhism emerged, rejecting
institutionalised religion.[37] The Mughal empire, in 1526, ushered in two centuries of relative
peace,[38] leaving a legacy of luminous architecture.[g][39] Gradually expanding rule of the British
East India Company followed, turning India into a colonial economy, but also consolidating its
sovereignty.[40] British Crown rule began in 1858. The rights promised to Indians were granted
slowly,[41] but technological changes were introduced, and ideas of education, modernity and the
public life took root.[42] A pioneering and influential nationalist movement emerged,[43] which was
noted for nonviolent resistance and led India to its independence in 1947.

India is a secular federal republic governed in a democratic parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic,

multilingual and multi-ethnic society. India's population grew from 361 million in 1951 to 1,211
million in 2011.[44] During the same time, its nominal per capita income increased from US$64
annually to US$1,498, and its literacy rate from 16.6% to 74%. From being a comparatively destitute
country in 1951,[45] India has become a fast-growing major economy, a hub for information
technology services, with an expanding middle class.[46] It has a space programme which includes
several planned or completed extraterrestrial missions. Indian movies, music, and spiritual teachings
play an increasing role in global culture.[47] India has substantially reduced its rate of poverty,
though at the cost of increasing economic inequality.[48] India is considered a great power and
nuclear weapons state, which ranks high in military expenditure. It has disputes over Kashmir with
its neighbours, Pakistan and China, unresolved since the mid-20th century.[49] Among the socio-
economic challenges India faces are gender inequality, child malnutrition,[50] and rising levels of air
pollution.[51] India's land is megadiverse, with four biodiversity hotspots.[52] Its forest cover
comprises 21.4% of its area.[53] India's wildlife, which has traditionally been viewed with tolerance
in India's culture,[54] is supported among these forests, and elsewhere, in protected habitats.

Contents
Etymology

According to the Oxford English Dictionary (Third Edition 2009), the name "India" is derived from the
Classical Latin India, a reference to South Asia and an uncertain region to its east; and in turn derived
successively from: Hellenistic Greek India ( Ἰνδία); ancient Greek Indos ( Ἰνδός); Old Persian Hindush,
an eastern province of the Achaemenid empire; and ultimately its cognate, the Sanskrit Sindhu, or
"river," but especially the Indus river and, by implication, its well-settled southern basin.[55][56] The
ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi (Ἰνδοί), which translates as "The people of the
Indus".[57]

The term Bharat (Bhārat; pronounced [ˈbʱaːɾət] (About this soundlisten)), mentioned in both Indian
epic poetry and the Constitution of India,[58][59] is used in its variations by many Indian languages.
A modern rendering of the historical name Bharatavarsha, which applied originally to a region of the
Gangetic Valley,[60][61] Bharat gained increased currency from the mid-19th century as a native
name for India.[58][62]

Hindustan ([ɦɪndʊˈstaːn] (About this soundlisten)) is a Middle Persian name for India, introduced
during the Mughal Empire and used widely since. Its meaning has varied, referring to a region
encompassing present-day northern India and Pakistan or to India in its near entirety.[58][62][63]

History

Main articles: History of India and History of the Republic of India

Ancient India

(Top) A pre-14th century CE manuscript of the Rigveda, which was composed from 1500 BCE to 1200
BCE and subsequently orally transmitted. (Bottom) The "Battle at Lanka," a scene from the Sanskrit
epic Ramayana—composed between 700 BCE and 200 CE—was illustrated by Sahibdin, an artist of
the 17th century.
By 55,000 years ago, the first modern humans, or Homo sapiens, had arrived on the Indian
subcontinent from Africa, where they had earlier evolved.[64][65][66] The earliest known modern
human remains in South Asia date to about 30,000 years ago.[67] After 6500 BCE, evidence for
domestication of food crops and animals, construction of permanent structures, and storage of
agricultural surplus appeared in Mehrgarh and other sites in what is now Balochistan.[68] These
gradually developed into the Indus Valley Civilisation,[69][68] the first urban culture in South
Asia,[70] which flourished during 2500–1900 BCE in what is now Pakistan and western India.[71]
Centred around cities such as Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Dholavira, and Kalibangan, and relying on
varied forms of subsistence, the civilisation engaged robustly in crafts production and wide-ranging
trade.[70]

During the period 2000–500 BCE, many regions of the subcontinent transitioned from the
Chalcolithic cultures to the Iron Age ones.[72] The Vedas, the oldest scriptures associated with
Hinduism,[73] were composed during this period,[74] and historians have analysed these to posit a
Vedic culture in the Punjab region and the upper Gangetic Plain.[72] Most historians also consider
this period to have encompassed several waves of Indo-Aryan migration into the subcontinent from
the north-west.[73] The caste system, which created a hierarchy of priests, warriors, and free
peasants, but which excluded indigenous peoples by labeling their occupations impure, arose during
this period.[75] On the Deccan Plateau, archaeological evidence from this period suggests the
existence of a chiefdom stage of political organisation.[72] In South India, a progression to sedentary
life is indicated by the large number of megalithic monuments dating from this period,[76] as well as
by nearby traces of agriculture, irrigation tanks, and craft traditions.[76]

Clockwise from upper left: (a) A map of the rough extent of the empire of Ashoka, ca 250 BCE; (b)
The map of India, ca 350 CE; (c) Cave 26 of the rock-cut Ajanta Caves, fifth century CE
In the late Vedic period, around the 6th century BCE, the small states and chiefdoms of the Ganges
Plain and the north-western regions had consolidated into 16 major oligarchies and monarchies that
were known as the mahajanapadas.[77][78] The emerging urbanisation gave rise to non-Vedic
religious movements, two of which became independent religions. Jainism came into prominence
during the life of its exemplar, Mahavira.[79] Buddhism, based on the teachings of Gautama Buddha,
attracted followers from all social classes excepting the middle class; chronicling the life of the
Buddha was central to the beginnings of recorded history in India.[80][81][82] In an age of increasing
urban wealth, both religions held up renunciation as an ideal,[83] and both established long-lasting
monastic traditions. Politically, by the 3rd century BCE, the kingdom of Magadha had annexed or
reduced other states to emerge as the Mauryan Empire.[84] The empire was once thought to have
controlled most of the subcontinent except the far south, but its core regions are now thought to
have been separated by large autonomous areas.[85][86] The Mauryan kings are known as much for
their empire-building and determined management of public life as for Ashoka's renunciation of
militarism and far-flung advocacy of the Buddhist dhamma.[87][88]

The Sangam literature of the Tamil language reveals that, between 200 BCE and 200 CE, the
southern peninsula was ruled by the Cheras, the Cholas, and the Pandyas, dynasties that traded
extensively with the Roman Empire and with West and South-East Asia.[89][90] In North India,
Hinduism asserted patriarchal control within the family, leading to increased subordination of
women.[91][84] By the 4th and 5th centuries, the Gupta Empire had created a complex system of
administration and taxation in the greater Ganges Plain that became a model for later Indian
kingdoms.[92][93] Under the Guptas, a renewed Hinduism based on devotion, rather than the
management of ritual, began to assert itself.[94] This renewal was reflected in a flowering of
sculpture and architecture, which found patrons among an urban elite.[93] Classical Sanskrit
literature flowered as well, and Indian science, astronomy, medicine, and mathematics made
significant advances.[93]

Medieval India

(left) A map of India in 1022 CE; (right) Brihadeshwara temple, Thanjavur, completed in 1010 CE
The Indian early medieval age, 600 CE to 1200 CE, is defined by regional kingdoms and cultural
diversity.[95] When Harsha of Kannauj, who ruled much of the Indo-Gangetic Plain from 606 to 647
CE, attempted to expand southwards, he was defeated by the Chalukya ruler of the Deccan.[96]
When his successor attempted to expand eastwards, he was defeated by the Pala king of Bengal.[96]
When the Chalukyas attempted to expand southwards, they were defeated by the Pallavas from
farther south, who in turn were opposed by the Pandyas and the Cholas from still farther south.[96]
No ruler of this period was able to create an empire and consistently control lands much beyond his
core region.[95] During this time, pastoral peoples, whose land had been cleared to make way for
the growing agricultural economy, were accommodated within caste society, as were new non-
traditional ruling classes.[97] The caste system consequently began to show regional differences.[97]

In the 6th and 7th centuries, the first devotional hymns were created in the Tamil language.[98]
They were imitated all over India and led to both the resurgence of Hinduism and the development
of all modern languages of the subcontinent.[98] Indian royalty, big and small, and the temples they
patronised drew citizens in great numbers to the capital cities, which became economic hubs as
well.[99] Temple towns of various sizes began to appear everywhere as India underwent another
urbanisation.[99] By the 8th and 9th centuries, the effects were felt in South-East Asia, as South
Indian culture and political systems were exported to lands that became part of modern-day
Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, and Java.[100] Indian
merchants, scholars, and sometimes armies were involved in this transmission; South-East Asians
took the initiative as well, with many sojourning in Indian seminaries and translating Buddhist and
Hindu texts into their languages.[100]

(left) India in 1398 CE, during the Delhi Sultanate (marked "Afghan empire" in the map); (b) The
Qutub Minar, 73 metres (240 ft) tall, completed by the Sultan of Delhi, Iltutmish
After the 10th century, Muslim Central Asian nomadic clans, using swift-horse cavalry and raising
vast armies united by ethnicity and religion, repeatedly overran South Asia's north-western plains,
leading eventually to the establishment of the Islamic Delhi Sultanate in 1206.[101] The sultanate
was to control much of North India and to make many forays into South India. Although at first
disruptive for the Indian elites, the sultanate largely left its vast non-Muslim subject population to its
own laws and customs.[102][103] By repeatedly repulsing Mongol raiders in the 13th century, the
sultanate saved India from the devastation visited on West and Central Asia, setting the scene for
centuries of migration of fleeing soldiers, learned men, mystics, traders, artists, and artisans from
that region into the subcontinent, thereby creating a syncretic Indo-Islamic culture in the
north.[104][105] The sultanate's raiding and weakening of the regional kingdoms of South India
paved the way for the indigenous Vijayanagara Empire.[106] Embracing a strong Shaivite tradition
and building upon the military technology of the sultanate, the empire came to control much of
peninsular India,[107] and was to influence South Indian society for long afterwards.[106]

Early modern India

Clockwise from upper left: (a) India in 1525 at the onset of Mughal rule; (b) India in 1605 during the
rule of Akbar; (c) A distant view of the Taj Mahal from the Agra Fort
In the early 16th century, northern India, then under mainly Muslim rulers,[108] fell again to the
superior mobility and firepower of a new generation of Central Asian warriors.[109] The resulting
Mughal Empire did not stamp out the local societies it came to rule. Instead, it balanced and pacified
them through new administrative practices[110][111] and diverse and inclusive ruling elites,[112]
leading to more systematic, centralised, and uniform rule.[113] Eschewing tribal bonds and Islamic
identity, especially under Akbar, the Mughals united their far-flung realms through loyalty,
expressed through a Persianised culture, to an emperor who had near-divine status.[112] The
Mughal state's economic policies, deriving most revenues from agriculture[114] and mandating that
taxes be paid in the well-regulated silver currency,[115] caused peasants and artisans to enter larger
markets.[113] The relative peace maintained by the empire during much of the 17th century was a
factor in India's economic expansion,[113] resulting in greater patronage of painting, literary forms,
textiles, and architecture.[116] Newly coherent social groups in northern and western India, such as
the Marathas, the Rajputs, and the Sikhs, gained military and governing ambitions during Mughal
rule, which, through collaboration or adversity, gave them both recognition and military
experience.[117] Expanding commerce during Mughal rule gave rise to new Indian commercial and
political elites along the coasts of southern and eastern India.[117] As the empire disintegrated,
many among these elites were able to seek and control their own affairs.[118]

Clockwise from top left: (a) India under British East India Company rule in 1795; (b) India in 1848; (c)
A two mohur gold coin issued by the Company in 1835 with the bust of William IV, King on the
obverse, and the face value in English and Persian, on the reverse
By the early 18th century, with the lines between commercial and political dominance being
increasingly blurred, a number of European trading companies, including the English East India
Company, had established coastal outposts.[119][120] The East India Company's control of the seas,
greater resources, and more advanced military training and technology led it to increasingly flex its
military muscle and caused it to become attractive to a portion of the Indian elite; these factors
were crucial in allowing the company to gain control over the Bengal region by 1765 and sideline the
other European companies.[121][119][122][123] Its further access to the riches of Bengal and the
subsequent increased strength and size of its army enabled it to annex or subdue most of India by
the 1820s.[124] India was then no longer exporting manufactured goods as it long had, but was
instead supplying the British Empire with raw materials. Many historians consider this to be the
onset of India's colonial period.[119] By this time, with its economic power severely curtailed by the
British parliament and having effectively been made an arm of British administration, the company
began more consciously to enter non-economic arenas like education, social reform, and
culture.[125]

Modern India
Main article: History of the Republic of India

1909 map of the British Indian Empire

Historians consider India's modern age to have begun sometime between 1848 and 1885. The
appointment in 1848 of Lord Dalhousie as Governor General of the East India Company set the stage
for changes essential to a modern state. These included the consolidation and demarcation of
sovereignty, the surveillance of the population, and the education of citizens. Technological
changes—among them, railways, canals, and the telegraph—were introduced not long after their
introduction in Europe.[126][127][128][129] However, disaffection with the company also grew
during this time and set off the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Fed by diverse resentments and
perceptions, including invasive British-style social reforms, harsh land taxes, and summary treatment
of some rich landowners and princes, the rebellion rocked many regions of northern and central
India and shook the foundations of Company rule.[130][131] Although the rebellion was suppressed
by 1858, it led to the dissolution of the East India Company and the direct administration of India by
the British government. Proclaiming a unitary state and a gradual but limited British-style
parliamentary system, the new rulers also protected princes and landed gentry as a feudal safeguard
against future unrest.[132][133] In the decades following, public life gradually emerged all over
India, leading eventually to the founding of the Indian National Congress in
1885.[134][135][136][137]

The rush of technology and the commercialisation of agriculture in the second half of the 19th
century was marked by economic setbacks—many small farmers became dependent on the whims
of far-away markets.[138] There was an increase in the number of large-scale famines,[139] and,
despite the risks of infrastructure development borne by Indian taxpayers, little industrial
employment was generated for Indians.[140] There were also salutary effects: commercial cropping,
especially in the newly canalled Punjab, led to increased food production for internal
consumption.[141] The railway network provided critical famine relief,[142] notably reduced the
cost of moving goods,[142] and helped nascent Indian-owned industry.[141]

Jawaharlal Nehru sharing a light moment with Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Mumbai, 6 July 1946
After World War I, in which approximately one million Indians served,[143] a new period began. It
was marked by British reforms but also repressive legislation, by more strident Indian calls for self-
rule, and by the beginnings of a nonviolent movement of non-co-operation, of which Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi would become the leader and enduring symbol.[144] During the 1930s, slow
legislative reform was enacted by the British; the Indian National Congress won victories in the
resulting elections.[145] The next decade was beset with crises: Indian participation in World War II,
the Congress's final push for non-co-operation, and an upsurge of Muslim nationalism. All were
capped by the advent of independence in 1947, but tempered by the partition of India into two
states: India and Pakistan.[146]

Vital to India's self-image as an independent nation was its constitution, completed in 1950, which
put in place a secular and democratic republic.[147] It has remained a democracy with civil liberties,
an active Supreme Court, and a largely independent press.[148] Economic liberalisation, which
began in the 1990s, has created a large urban middle class, transformed India into one of the world's
fastest-growing economies,[149] and increased its geopolitical clout. Indian movies, music, and
spiritual teachings play an increasing role in global culture.[148] Yet, India is also shaped by
seemingly unyielding poverty, both rural and urban;[148] by religious and caste-related
violence;[150] by Maoist-inspired Naxalite insurgencies;[151] and by separatism in Jammu and
Kashmir and in Northeast India.[152] It has unresolved territorial disputes with China[153] and with
Pakistan.[153] The India–Pakistan nuclear rivalry came to a head in 1998.[154] India's sustained
democratic freedoms are unique among the world's newer nations; however, in spite of its recent
economic successes, freedom from want for its disadvantaged population remains a goal yet to be
achieved.[155]

Geography

Main article: Geography of India

India's orographical features include the Ganges and Indus plains, the Western and Eastern Ghats,
the Thar desert, the Aravalli hills, and Satpura and Vindhya ranges.

The average onset dates and wind directions during India's southwest summer monsoon

Fishing boats are moored and lashed together during an approaching monsoon storm whose dark
clouds can be seen overhead. The scene is a tidal creek in Anjarle, a coastal village in Maharashtra.
India accounts for the bulk of the Indian subcontinent, lying atop the Indian tectonic plate, a part of
the Indo-Australian Plate.[156] India's defining geological processes began 75 million years ago when
the Indian Plate, then part of the southern supercontinent Gondwana, began a north-eastward drift
caused by seafloor spreading to its south-west, and later, south and south-east.[156]
Simultaneously, the vast Tethyan oceanic crust, to its northeast, began to subduct under the
Eurasian Plate.[156] These dual processes, driven by convection in the Earth's mantle, both created
the Indian Ocean and caused the Indian continental crust eventually to under-thrust Eurasia and to
uplift the Himalayas.[156] Immediately south of the emerging Himalayas, plate movement created a
vast trough that rapidly filled with river-borne sediment[157] and now constitutes the Indo-Gangetic
Plain.[158] Cut off from the plain by the ancient Aravalli Range lies the Thar Desert.[159]

The original Indian Plate survives as peninsular India, the oldest and geologically most stable part of
India. It extends as far north as the Satpura and Vindhya ranges in central India. These parallel chains
run from the Arabian Sea coast in Gujarat in the west to the coal-rich Chota Nagpur Plateau in
Jharkhand in the east.[160] To the south, the remaining peninsular landmass, the Deccan Plateau, is
flanked on the west and east by coastal ranges known as the Western and Eastern Ghats;[161] the
plateau contains the country's oldest rock formations, some over one billion years old. Constituted
in such fashion, India lies to the north of the equator between 6° 44' and 35° 30' north latitude[h]
and 68° 7' and 97° 25' east longitude.[162]

India's coastline measures 7,517 kilometres (4,700 mi) in length; of this distance, 5,423 kilometres
(3,400 mi) belong to peninsular India and 2,094 kilometres (1,300 mi) to the Andaman, Nicobar, and
Lakshadweep island chains.[163] According to the Indian naval hydrographic charts, the mainland
coastline consists of the following: 43% sandy beaches; 11% rocky shores, including cliffs; and 46%
mudflats or marshy shores.[163]

Flowing near Hampi is the Tungabhadra river, a tributary of the peninsular Krishna river, which
empties into the Bay of Bengal. The circular shape of the coracle makes it stable in rivers with rocky
outcrops.[164]
Major Himalayan-origin rivers that substantially flow through India include the Ganges and the
Brahmaputra, both of which drain into the Bay of Bengal.[165] Important tributaries of the Ganges
include the Yamuna and the Kosi; the latter's extremely low gradient, caused by long-term silt
deposition, leads to severe floods and course changes.[166][167] Major peninsular rivers, whose
steeper gradients prevent their waters from flooding, include the Godavari, the Mahanadi, the
Kaveri, and the Krishna, which also drain into the Bay of Bengal;[168] and the Narmada and the
Tapti, which drain into the Arabian Sea.[169] Coastal features include the marshy Rann of Kutch of
western India and the alluvial Sundarbans delta of eastern India; the latter is shared with
Bangladesh.[170] India has two archipelagos: the Lakshadweep, coral atolls off India's south-western
coast; and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a volcanic chain in the Andaman Sea.[171]

The Indian climate is strongly influenced by the Himalayas and the Thar Desert, both of which drive
the economically and culturally pivotal summer and winter monsoons.[172] The Himalayas prevent
cold Central Asian katabatic winds from blowing in, keeping the bulk of the Indian subcontinent
warmer than most locations at similar latitudes.[173][174] The Thar Desert plays a crucial role in
attracting the moisture-laden south-west summer monsoon winds that, between June and October,
provide the majority of India's rainfall.[172] Four major climatic groupings predominate in India:
tropical wet, tropical dry, subtropical humid, and montane.[175]

Biodiversity

Main articles: Forestry in India and Wildlife of India

A 1909 map showing India's forests, bush and small wood, cultivated lands, steppe, and desert

A 2010 map shows India's forest cover averaged out for each state.

India has the majority of the world's wild tigers, nearly 3,000 in 2019,[176] Shown here is Maya, a
Bengal tigress of the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra.
India is a megadiverse country, a term employed for 17 countries which display high biological
diversity and contain many species exclusively indigenous, or endemic, to them.[177] India is a
habitat for 8.6% of all mammal species, 13.7% of bird species, 7.9% of reptile species, 6% of
amphibian species, 12.2% of fish species, and 6.0% of all flowering plant species.[178][179] Fully a
third of Indian plant species are endemic.[180] India also contains four of the world's 34 biodiversity
hotspots,[52] or regions that display significant habitat loss in the presence of h