SOUTH ASIA MAP
List of South Asia Countries :
Geographical Physical Regions of South Asia :
While South Asia had never been a coherent geopolitical region, it has a distinct geographical identity.The boundaries of South Asia vary based on how the region is defined. South Asia's northern, eastern, and western boundaries vary based on definitions used, while the Indian Oceanis the southern periphery. Most of this region rests on the Indian Plate and is isolated from the rest of Asia by mountain barriers.The Indian Plate includes most of South Asia, forming a land mass which extends from the Himalayas into a portion of the basin under the Indian Ocean, including parts of South China and Eastern Indonesia, as well as Kuen Lun and Karakoramranges, and extending up to but not including Ladakh, Kohistan, the Hindu Kush range and Balochistan.It may be noted that geophysically the Yarlung Tsangpo River river in Tibet is situated at the outside of the border of the Subcontinental structure, while the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan are situated inside that border.
Much of the region comprises a peninsula in south-central Asia, rather resembling a diamond which is delineated by the Himalayas on the north, the Hindu Kush in the west, and the Arakanese in the east,and which extends southward into the Indian Ocean with the Arabian Sea to the southwest and the Bay of Bengal to the southeast.
Per the UN, the wider subregion's northern frontier is the Himalayas and southerly post-Soviet states of Central Asia (Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, andTurkmenistan, bordering northern Afghanistan and Iran), its western boundary is the westerly border of Iran (with Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey, andIraq), and its eastern boundary is the westerly border of Burma (with India and Bangladesh).
Most of this region is a subcontinent resting on the Indian Plate (the northerly portion of the Indo-Australian Plate) separated from the rest of the Eurasian Plate. It was once a small continent before colliding with the Eurasian Plate about 50-55 million years ago and giving birth to theHimalayan range and the Tibetan plateau. It is the peninsular region south of the Himalayas and Kuen Lun mountain ranges and east of the Indus River and the Iranian Plateau, extending southward into the Indian Ocean between the Arabian Sea (to the southwest) and the Bay of Bengal (to the southeast).
The region is home to a variety of geographical features, such as glaciers, rainforests, valleys, deserts, and grasslands that are typical of much larger continents. It is surrounded by three water bodies — the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. The climate of this vast region varies considerably from area to area from tropical monsoon in the south to temperate in the north. The variety is influenced by not only the altitude, but also by factors such as proximity to the sea coast and the seasonal impact of the monsoons.
Climate of The South Asia :
Southern parts are mostly hot in summers and receive rain during monsoon period(s). The northern belt of Indo-Gangetic plains also is hot in summer, but cooler in winter. The mountainous north is colder and receives snowfall at higher altitudes of Himalyan ranges.
As the Himalayas block the north-Asian bitter cold winds, the temperatures are considerably moderate in the plains down below. For most part, the climate of the region is called the Monsoon climate, which keeps the region humid during summer and dry during winter, and favors the cultivation of jute, tea, rice, and various vegetables in this region.
The Importance of Geographical Physical Regions and Climate for South Asia Tourism :- for the tourist attraction
- can increase the loca ecnomies
- can rate the tourism level
demography india
With 1,210,193,422 residents reported in the 2011 provisional census,India is the world's second-most populous country. Its population grew at 1.76% per annum during 2001–2011,down from 2.13% per annum in the previous decade (1991–2001).The human sex ratio, according to the 2011 census, is 940 females per 1,000 males.The median age was 24.9 in the 2001 census.The first post-colonial census, conducted in 1951, counted 361.1 million people.Medical advances made in the last 50 years as well as increased agricultural productivity brought about by the "Green Revolution" have caused India's population to grow rapidly.India continues to face several public health-related challenges.According to the World Health Organisation, 900,000 Indians die each year from drinking contaminated water or breathing polluted air.There are around 50 physicians per 100,000 Indians.The number of Indians living in urban areas has grown by 31.2% between 1991 and 2001.Yet, in 2001, over 70% lived in rural areas.According to the 2001 census, there are 27 million-plus cities in India;among them Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata,Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad are the most populous metropolitan areas. The literacy rate in 2011 was 74.04%: 65.46% among females and 82.14% among males.Kerala is the most literate state;Bihar the least.
India is home to two major language families: Indo-Aryan (spoken by about 74% of the population) and Dravidian (24%). Other languages spoken in India come from the Austroasiatic and Tibeto-Burman language families. India has no national language.Hindi, with the largest number of speakers, is the official language of the government.English is used extensively in business and administration and has the status of a "subsidiary official language";it is important in education, especially as a medium of higher education. Each state and union territory has one or more official languages, and the constitution recognises in particular 21 "scheduled languages". The Constitution of India recognises 212 scheduled tribal groups which together constitute about 7.5% of the country's population.The 2001 census reported that Hinduism, with over 800 million adherents (80.5% of the population), was the largest religion in India; it is followed by Islam (13.4%), Christianity (2.3%), Sikhism (1.9%), Buddhism (0.8%), Jainism (0.4%), Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and the Bahá'í Faith.India has the world's largest Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Zoroastrian, and Bahá'í populations, and has the third-largest Muslim population and the largest Muslim population for a non-Muslim majority country.
Culture
Indian cultural history spans more than 4,500 years.During the Vedic period (c. 1700–500 BCE), the foundations of Hindu philosophy, mythology, and literature were laid, and many beliefs and practices which still exist today, such as dhárma, kárma, yóga, and mokṣa, were established.India is notable for its religious diversity, with Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam, Christianity, and Jainism among the nation's major religions.The predominant religion, Hinduism, has been shaped by various historical schools of thought, including those of the Upanishads,the Yoga Sutras, the Bhaktimovement,and by Buddhist philosophy.
Art and architecture
Much of Indian architecture, including the Taj Mahal, other works of Mughal architecture, and South Indian architecture, blends ancient local traditions with imported styles.Vernacular architecture is also highly regional in it flavours. Vastu shastra, literally "science of construction" or "architecture" and ascribed to Mamuni Mayan,explores how the laws of nature affect human dwellings; it employs precise geometry and directional alignments to reflect perceived cosmic constructs.As applied in Hindu temple architecture, it is influenced by the Shilpa Shastras, a series of foundational texts whose basic mythological form is the Vastu-Purusha mandala, a square that embodied the "absolute".The Taj Mahal, built inAgra between 1631 and 1648 by orders of Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife, has been described in the UNESCO World Heritage List as "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage."Indo-Saracenic Revival architecture, developed by the British in the late 19th century, drew on Indo-Islamic architecture.
geography
India's major mineral resources include Coal (fourth-largest reserves in the world), Iron ore, Manganese, Mica, Bauxite, Titanium ore, Chromite, Natural gas, Diamonds, Petroleum, Limestone andThorium (world's largest along Tamil Nadus shores). India's oil reserves, found in Bombay High off the coast of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and in eastern Assam meet 25% of the country's demand.
India comprises the bulk of the Indian subcontinent and lies atop the minor Indian tectonic plate, which in turn belongs to the Indo-Australian Plate.India's defining geological processes commenced 75 million years ago when the Indian subcontinent, then part of the southern supercontinentGondwana, began a north-eastward drift across the then-unformed Indian Ocean that lasted fifty million years.The subcontinent's subsequent collision with, and subduction under, the Eurasian Plate bore aloft the planet's highest mountains, the Himalayas. They abut India in the north and thenorth-east.In the former seabed immediately south of the emerging Himalayas, plate movement created a vast trough that has gradually filled with river-borne sediment;it now forms the Indo-Gangetic Plain.To the west lies the Thar Desert, which is cut off by the Aravalli Range.
The original Indian plate survives as peninsular India, which is the oldest and geologically most stable part of India; it extends as far north as the Satpuraand 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 Plateauin Jharkhand in the east.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;the plateau contains the nation's oldest rock formations, some of them 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 and 68° 7' and 97° 25' east longitude.
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.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.
Major Himalayan-origin rivers that substantially flow through India include the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, both of which drain into the Bay of Bengal.Important tributaries of the Ganges include the Yamuna and the Kosi; the latter's extremely low gradient often leads to severe floods and course changes.[119]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;and the Narmada and the Tapti, which drain into the Arabian Sea.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.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.
The Indian climate is strongly influenced by the Himalayas and the Thar Desert, both of which drive the economically and culturally pivotal summer and wintermonsoons.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. 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.Four major climatic groupings predominate in India: tropical wet, tropical dry, subtropical humid, and montane
natural resources india
PAKISTAN
climate
Pakistan covers an area of 796,095 km2 (307,374 sq mi), approximately equal to the combined land areas of France and the United Kingdom. It is the36th largest nation by total area, although this ranking varies depending on how the disputed territory of Kashmir is counted. Pakistan has a 1,046 km (650 mi) coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and land borders of 6,774 km (4,209 mi) in total: 2,430 km (1,510 mi) with Afghanistan, 523 km (325 mi) with China, 2,912 km (1,809 mi) with India and 909 km (565 mi) with Iran. It shares a marine border with Oman,and is separated from Tajikistan by the cold, narrow Wakhan Corridor.Pakistan occupies a geopolitically important location at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East and Central Asia.
Geologically, Pakistan overlaps the Indian tectonic plate in its Sindh and Punjab provinces; Balochistan and most of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are within theEurasian plate, mainly on the Iranian plateau. Gilgit–Baltistan and Azad Kashmir lie along the edge of the Indian plate and hence are prone to violent earthquakes. Ranging from the coastal areas of the south to the glaciated mountains of the north, Pakistan's landscapes vary from plains to deserts, forests, hills and plateaus.
Pakistan is divided into three major geographic areas: the northern highlands, the Indus River plain and the Balochistan Plateau. The northern highlands contain the Karakoram, Hindu Kush and Pamir mountain ranges (see mountains of Pakistan), which contain some of the world's highest peaks, including five of the fourteen eight-thousanders (mountain peaks over 8,000 metres or 26,250 feet), which attract adventurers and mountaineers from all over the world, notably K2 (8,611 m or 28,251 ft) and Nanga Parbat (8,126 m or 26,660 ft).The Balochistan Plateau lies in the west and the Thar Desert in the east. The 1,609 km (1,000 mi) Indus River and its tributaries flow through the country from the Kashmir region to the Arabian Sea. There is an expanse of alluvial plains along it in Punjab and Sindh.
The climate varies from tropical to temperate, with arid conditions in the coastal south. There is a monsoon season with frequent flooding due to heavy rainfall, and a dry season with significantly less rainfall or none at all. There are four distinct seasons: a cool, dry winter from December through February; a hot, dry spring from March through May; the summer rainy season, or southwest monsoon period, from June through September; and the retreating monsoon period of October and November.Rainfall varies greatly from year to year, and patterns of alternate flooding and drought are common.
natural resources
land, extensive natural gas reserves, limited petroleum, poor quality coal, iron ore, copper, salt, limestone
domography
With 180.1 million residents reported in 2012, Pakistan is the sixth most populated country in the world, behind Brazil and ahead of Bangladesh. Its 2.03% population growth rate is the highest among the SAARC countries and gives an annual increase of 3.6 million. The population is projected to reach 210.13 million by 2020 and to double by 2045. In 1947, Pakistan had a population of 32.5 million.From 1990 to 2009 it increased by 57.2%. By 2030 it is expected to surpass Indonesia as the largest Muslim-majority country in the world.Pakistan is a 'young' nation, with a median age of about 22 and 104 million people under 30 in 2010. Pakistan's fertility rate stands at 3.07, higher than its neighbours India(2.57) and Iran(1.73). Around 35% of the people are under 15
The majority of southern Pakistan's population lives along the Indus River. Karachi is its most populous city.In the northern half of the country, most of the population lives in an arc formed by the cities of Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Gujrat,Jhelum, Sargodha, Sheikhupura, Nowshera, Mardan and Peshawar. During 1990–2008, city dwellers made up 36% of Pakistan's population, making it the most urbanised nation in South Asia.Furthermore, 50% of Pakistanis live in towns of 5,000 people or more.
Expenditure on health was 2.6% of GDP in 2009.Life expectancy at birth was 65.4 years for females and 63.6 years for males in 2010. The private sector accounts for about 80% of outpatient visits. Approximately 19% of the population and 30% of children under five are malnourished. Mortality of the under-fives was 87 per 1,000 live births in 2009.About 20% of the population live below the international poverty line of US$1.25 a day.
More than sixty languages are spoken in Pakistan, including a number of provincial languages. Urdu, the lingua franca and a symbol of Muslim identity and national unity, is the national language and is understood by over 75% of Pakistanis. English is the official language of Pakistan, used in official business, government, and legal contracts the local dialect is known as Pakistani English. Punjabi is the most common native language in Punjab and has many native speakers. Saraiki is mainly spoken in South Punjab. Pashto is the provincial language of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindhi is the provincial language of Sindh, and Balochi is dominant in Balochistan
.jpg)
