Chapter 1: Geographical Diversity of India — Class 7 Social Science
Social Science · 20 chapters
Summary, key terms, important questions and a practice quiz with AI diagnosis for each.
Chapter 1: Geographical Diversity of India
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How were the Himalayas formed?
Summary
This chapter takes a bird's-eye journey across India, the seventh-largest country in the world and the heart of the Indian Subcontinent, to show how astonishingly varied its land is. Beginning with the towering Himalayas in the north — divided into the Himadri, Himachal and Shivalik ranges and called the 'Water Tower of Asia' because their melting snows feed the Ganga, Indus and Brahmaputra — the chapter explains that this mountain wall was formed when the Indian landmass broke from Gondwana and collided with Eurasia about 50 million years ago. It then descends to the cold desert of Ladakh, the fertile Gangetic Plains where a large share of Indians live, the golden dunes of the Thar Desert with their ingenious water-saving systems, and the ancient Aravalli Hills that hold back the desert. Moving south, it surveys the Peninsular Plateau bordered by the Western and Eastern Ghats, its mineral wealth and tribal communities, and the rivers that cross it. Finally it explores India's 7500-km coastline, the west and east coasts with their deltas, the Lakshadweep and Andaman & Nicobar islands, the Sundarbans mangrove delta, and the rain-soaked hills of the Northeast. The big idea is that this diversity of landforms shapes India's soils, climate, wildlife, cultures and economic life, helping to make the country a kind of 'mini-continent' that nonetheless remains one nation.
The Himalayas and their formationNorthern Plains and the Thar DesertThe Peninsular Plateau and the GhatsIndia's coastlines and islandsHow diversity shapes life and culture
Key terms
Indian Subcontinent
The region formed by India and its neighbours — Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar — set apart by mountains and seas.
Peninsula
A piece of land surrounded by water on three sides; the southern plateau is a peninsular plateau bordered by the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean.
Plateau
A landform that rises above the surrounding land with a fairly flat top and often steep sides, such as the Deccan Plateau.
Delta
A triangular or fan-shaped landform built up by sediment a river deposits where it meets a sea or lake, as with the Godavari and Sundarbans deltas.
Cold desert
A dry, rugged region like Ladakh where rainfall is scarce and winter temperatures can fall below –30°C, unlike a hot sandy desert.
Archipelago
A group or chain of islands, such as Lakshadweep in the Arabian Sea or the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal.
Important questions
The Big Questions
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Questions and activities
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Indian Subcontinent
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The region formed by India and its neighbours — Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar — set apart by mountains and seas.
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Practice quiz · Geographical Diversity of India
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