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International boundaries

of India
An Overview

Historical contents

The geography of India describes the


geographic features of India, a country in South
Asia. India lies largely on the Indian Plate, the
northern portion of the Indo-Australian Plate,
whose continental crust forms the Indian
subcontinent. The country is situated north of the
equator between 84' and 376' north latitude and
687' and 9725' east longitude.It is the seventhlargest country in the world, with a total area of
3,166,414 square kilometres
(1,222,559sqmi).India measures 3,214km
(1,997mi) from north to south and 2,933km
(1,822mi) from east to west. It has a land frontier
of 15,200km (9,445mi) and a coastline of
7,517km (4,671mi).

On the south, India projects into and is bounded by


the Indian Ocean in particular, by the Arabian Sea
on the southwest, the Laccadive Sea to the south,
and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. The Palk
Strait and Gulf of Mannar separate India from Sri
Lanka to its immediate southeast, and the Maldives
are some 400 kilometres (250mi) to the southwest.
India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands, some 1,200
kilometres (750mi) southeast of the mainland, share
maritime borders with Burma, Thailand and
Indonesia. Kanyakumari at 8441N and 773228E is
the southernmost tip of the Indian mainland, while
the southernmost point in India is Indira Point on
Great Nicobar Island. India's territorial waters extend
into the sea to a distance of 12 nautical miles
(13.8mi; 22.2km) from the coast baseline.

The northern frontiers of India are


defined largely by the Himalayan
mountain range, where the country
borders China, Bhutan, and Nepal. Its
western border with Pakistan lies in
the Punjab Plain and the Thar Desert.
In the far northeast, the Chin Hills
and Kachin Hills, deeply forested
mountainous regions, separate India
from Burma. On the east, its border
with Bangladesh is largely defined by
the Khasi Hills and Mizo Hills, and the
watershed region of the Indo-

The Ganges is the longest river originating


in India. The GangesBrahmaputra system
occupies most of northern, central, and
eastern India, while the Deccan Plateau
occupies most of southern India.
Kangchenjunga, on the border between
Nepal and the Indian state of Sikkim, is the
highest point in India at 8,598m
(28,209ft) and the world's 3rd highest
peak. Climate across India ranges from
equatorial in the far south, to alpine and
tundra in the upper reaches of the
Himalayas.

Facts of Indian Geography


One-third the area of the United States, the
Republic of India occupies most of the
subcontinent of India in southern Asia. It borders
on China in the northeast. Other neighbors are
Pakistan on the west, Nepal and Bhutan on the
north, and Burma and Bangladesh on the east.
The country can be divided into three distinct
geographic regions: the Himalayan region in the
north, which contains some of the highest
mountains in the world, the Gangetic Plain, and the
plateau region in the south and central part. Its
three great river systemsthe Ganges, the Indus,
and the Brahmaputrahave extensive deltas and
all rise in the Himalayas.

Following are the India Area and Boundaries details : India stretches 3,214 km from N to S & 2933 km from E to W.
Area:- 32,87,263 sq. km. Accounts for 2.4 % of total world area and 16 % of the
population
Mainland India has a coastline of 6,100 km. Including the Lakshadweep and
Andaman and Nicobar, the coastline measures about 7516. km
In India, total land mass is
Plains : - 43.3 %
Plateaus :- 27.7 %
Hills :- 18.6 %
Mountains:- 10.7 %

In the south, on the eastern side, the Gulf of Mannar & the Palk Strait separate
India from Sri Lanka
Total land neighbours of India are 7 . These are
Pakistan
Afghanistan
China
Nepal
Sri Lanka
Bhutan
Bangladesh and
Myanmar

Indias Islands include the Andaman & Nicobar Islands in Bay of Bangal &
Lakshadweep, Minocy & Amindive Islands in the Arabian Sea

India's Boundary Disputes with


China, Nepal, and Pakistan
The recent detonation of a series of nuclear devices by India and Pakistan has
increased tension in South Asia and threatens to inflame long-standing
boundary disputes that India has with China, Nepal, and Pakistan. The
disputes with China and Pakistan have already triggered several wars. The
new Hindu-nationalist government in New Delhi has reversed movement
toward dtente with Beijing and Islamabad. The areas in contention with
China and Pakistan are among the largest land-boundary disputes in the
world. The Indo-Nepali dispute over Kalapani is more recent and involves a
small area.
India-China (Aksai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh)
In the 1962 Sino-Indian War, China seized a Switzerland-sized area, Aksai Chin
(Aksayqin), and overran Arunachal Pradesh (an Indian state the size of
Austria). There are also other, smaller pockets of disputed area.[1] The PRC
withdrew from virtually all of Arunachal Pradesh to the Line of Actual Control
(LAC), which approximates the McMahon Line that is found in a 1914
agreement initialed by British, Tibetan, and Chinese representatives.[2]
Chinese and Indian forces clashed in the Sumdorong Chu valley of Arunachal
Pradesh in 1986-87. Relations began to thaw in 1988.

On 7 September 1993, China and India signed an accord to reduce tensions along their border
and to respect the LAC. During November 1996, China and India agreed to delimit the LAC and
institute confidence-building measures (CBMs) along the frontier. The agreement pledged
nonaggression, prior notification of large troop movements, a 10-km no-fly zone for combat
aircraft, and exchange of maps to resolve disagreements about the precise location of the LAC.
In August 1997 the sides ratified the CBM agreement. There seems to have been little
substantive progress, except for a series of high-level visits.[3] The most recent, on 27 April,
was the first visit by a PRC Chief of Staff to India. However, two weeks before the visit the new
Indian Defense Minister, George Fernandes, accused the PRC of repeated violations of Indian
territory, including the construction of a helipad on "Indian" territory in the disputed zone, and
of aiding Pakistan's nuclear and missile programs. On 3 May he publicly labeled China as India's
number one threat and alleged that the PRC was stockpiling nuclear weapons in Tibet,
expanding naval activity off the Burmese coast, and conducting surveillance against India from
Burma's Coco Islands.[4] After the visit of General Fu Quanyou and PRC protests, Fernandes said
that his characterization of China as India's principal threat was a personal view, but he went on
to pledge that the number of Indian troops along the frontier with China would not be reduced.
Such a statement calls into question part of the agreed CBMs.
China and India have yet to address their fundamental and very large land boundary disputes.
Moreover, their bilateral relations are complicated by the issues of Tibet (Xizang), Sikkim, and
Kashmir. India plays host to the Dalai Lama and a large number of Tibetan refugees. They
present an implicit threat to Chinese control of Tibet, which it invaded in 1950. On its maps, the
PRC continues to portray Sikkim, which was absorbed by India in 1974, as an independent
country. In addition to the Aksai Chin, China and India dispute another section of Kashmir (the
area west of Aksai Chin).

India-Pakistan-China (Kashmir)
When India and Pakistan became independent of Great Britain in 1947, the various princely states,
including that of Jammu and Kashmir, could accede to either country. An armed revolt of Muslim
peasantry against the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir prompted the Maharaja to accede to India in
order to gain military aid. Pakistan objected and the countries went to war. The matter was taken up
by the UN Security Council in 1948, which adopted a resolution calling for the restoration of order,
the withdrawal of Pakistani forces and reduction of Indian forces, and a UN plebiscite. India and
Pakistan objected to various of these provisions. They went to war over Kashmir again in 1965. In
1971 India intervened in Pakistan's civil war that led to the independence of Bangladesh. India and
Pakistan came close to war over Kashmir in 1990. (To view a map of this area click here.)
UN observers monitor part of the Indo-Pakistani cease-fire line. The current line was established by
the 1972 Simla accord and approximately follows the 1949 Cease-fire Line. The coordinates of the
Simla line have not been published, and the line was never delimited in the forbidding Siachin
Glacier, near the Chinese frontier, where India and Pakistan frequently trade artillery rounds. Firing
incidents and allegations of infiltration are chronic along the entire cease-fire line.
The Indian-controlled part of Jammu and Kashmir became a state in 1974. The parts of Kashmir
controlled by Pakistan, Azad Kashmir and the Northern Areas, have anomalous status as
administered territories. In 1963 China and Pakistan delimited a boundary that India claims illegally
gave part of Kashmir to China. In 1987 a Sino-Pakistani protocol formalized demarcation of their
boundary. The termination of this boundary at the Karakoram Pass on the Chinese line of control
suggests that Pakistan recognizes Chinese sovereignty over Aksai Chin, which is part of the former
Princely State of Kashmir.
India and Pakistan have held sporadic talks. In June 1997, they agreed to eight issues for discussion,
including the issue of Kashmir and their maritime boundary. Pakistan wants to set-up a separate task
force on Kashmir; India has resisted the idea. Talks have made little progress due to changes in the
respective governments. The recent efforts by US Ambassador Richardson to resolve the dispute
seem to have been blown out of the water by Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests.

India-Nepal (Kalapani)
The dispute between India and Nepal involves about 75 sq km of area in
Kalapani, where China, India, and Nepal meet. Indian forces occupied the
area in 1962 after China and India fought their border war.[5] Three villages
are located in the disputed zone: Kuti [Kuthi, 3019'N, 8046'E], Gunji, and
Knabe. India and Nepal disagree about how to interpret the 1816 Sugauli
treaty between the British East India Company and Nepal, which delimited
the boundary along the Maha Kali River (Sarda River in India). The dispute
intensified in 1997 as the Nepali parliament considered a treaty on hydroelectric development of the river. India and Nepal differ as to which stream
constitutes the source of the river. Nepal regards the Limpiyadhura as the
source; India claims the Lipu Lekh. Nepal has reportedly tabled an 1856
map from the British India Office to support its position. The countries have
held several meetings about the dispute and discussed jointly surveying to
resolve the issue.[6] Although the Indo-Nepali dispute appears to be minor,
it was aggravated in 1962 by tensions between China and India. Because
the disputed area lies near the Sino-Indian frontier, it gains strategic value.
Like most boundary dispute, those of India with its neighbors are
symptomatic of wider bilateral relations. Boundaries are manifestations of
national identity. They can be trip-wires of war. Recent developments in
South Asia suggest that peaceful resolution of these disputes is receding
from reach.

Physical Boundaries : The sub-continent is isolated in a remarkable way


from the rest of Asia, making it a geographical
unit. For example, barring the plateau of
Baluchistan the two great ranges, namely, the
Sulaiman and the Kirthar, cut it off from the west.
Along the North the great mountains wall formed
by the Hindu Kush, Karakoram and the
Himalayas, cut it off the countries that lie beyond
as the mountains are very high and difficult to
cross. Similarly, the Southward offshoots of the
Eastern Himalayas separate it from Burma.

The Himalayas and other lofty mountainsMuztagh Ata, Aghil Kunlun Mountains to the
north of Kashmir and south eastern portion of
Zaskar mountains to east of Himachal Pradesh
- from India's northern boundary, except in the
Nepal region. She is adjoined in the north by
China, Nepal and Bhutan. A series of mountain
ranges in the east separate India from Burma.
Also, in the east, lies Bangladesh bounded by
Indian States of West Bengal, Assam,
Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. In the northwest, Afghanistan and Pakistan border on India.
The Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait separate
India from Srilanka.

Major disputes and international treaties

1. McMahon line
2. Line of Control

McMahon line
The McMahon Line is a line agreed to by Britain and Tibet as part of the Simla Accord,
a treaty signed in 1914. It is the effective boundary between China and India, although
its legal status is disputed by the Chinese government.
The line is named after Sir Henry McMahon, foreign secretary of the British-run
Government of India and the chief negotiator of the convention at Simla. It extends for
550 miles (890km) from Bhutan in the west to 160 miles (260km) east of the great
bend of the Brahmaputra River in the east, largely along the crest of the Himalayas.
Simla (along with the McMahon Line) was initially rejected by the Government of India
as incompatible with the 1907 Anglo-Russian Convention.[This convention was
denounced in 1921. After Simla, the McMahon Line was forgotten until 1935, when
British civil service officer Olaf Caroe convinced the government to publish the Simla
Convention and use the McMahon Line on official maps. The McMahon Line is regarded
by India as the legal national border. It is disputed by China. As recently as 2003, the
Dalai Lama said that the disputed region was part of Tibet, but he reversed his position
in 2008, acknowledging the legitimacy of the McMahon Line and the Indian claim to the
region.
China rejects the Simla Accord, contending that the Tibetan government was not
sovereign and therefore did not have the power to conclude treaties. Chinese maps
show some 65,000 square kilometres (25,000sqmi) of the territory south of the line as
part of the Tibet Autonomous Region, known as South Tibet in China. Chinese forces
briefly occupied this area during the Sino-Indian War of 1962. China does recognise a
Line of Actual Control which closely approximates most of the "so called McMahon line"
in the eastern part of its border with India, according to a 1959 diplomatic note by Prime
Minister Zhou Enlai

Line of Control
The term Line of Control (LOC) known as Asia's Berlin
wall,refers to the military control line between the Indian and
Pakistani-controlled parts of the former princely state of Jammu
and Kashmira line which, to this day, does not constitute a
legally recognized international boundary but is the de facto
border. Originally known as the "Cease-fire Line", it was
redesignated as the "Line of Control" following the Simla
Agreement, which was signed on 3 July 1972. The part of the
former princely state that is under Indian control is known as the
State of Jammu and Kashmir. The two parts of the former princely
state that are under Pakistani control are known as Gilgit
Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). Its northernmost
point is known as the NJ9842.
Another cease-fire line, one that separates the Indian-controlled
state of Jammu and Kashmir from the Chinese-controlled area
known as Aksai Chin, lies further to the east and is known as the
Line of Actual Control (LAC). It has been referred to as one of the
most dangerous places in the world.

Thank You
-Karan Singh Maan
(Itallion Stallion)

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