India Climate and Hydrography

By | December 16, 2021

India is a state of South Asia, by extension the third of Asia and the seventh of the world. The land border, to the NW with Pakistan, to the NE with China, Nepal and Bhutan, to the East with Myanmar and Bangladesh, extends for about 14,100 km (in dispute are the control of Kashmir, shared with a provisional line between Pakistan, India and China, and areas along the NE border with China); the maritime one measures 7000 km. Between extremes N and S and between extremes O and E there are, respectively, 3200 and 3000 km. It also includes the archipelagos of the Laccadives, in the Arabian Sea, and of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, off the Bay of Bengal.

Climate

As for the climate, the local conditions in the India they are very varied due to the great extension in latitude (from 8 ° 4 ′ to 37 ° 6 ′ lat. N), to the position with respect to the Indian Ocean and to the arrangement of the relief; however, it is always a climate of the tropical monsoon belt: if the temperature is variable, periodic rainfall remains the fundamental factor of seasonal differentiation. There are in fact two well-defined and opposing seasons, a dry winter and a rainy summer. Winter rains occur only in the inland Himalayan areas, excluded from the influence of the monsoons (Kashmir). Average temperatures are generally above 20 ° C, with little marked temperature variations in the southern regions and in the coastal strip and more accentuated as we proceed towards the North and inland (Delhi, 14.2 and 31.4 ° C). In Rajasthan and a few other regions, winter temperatures often drop below freezing. The periodicity of the rains depends on the relative regularity of the monsoons, which at the beginning of June blow from the SW towards the western coast (Kerala), full of humidity, and spread slowly throughout the country.. The amount of rainfall and the duration of the rainy period are linked to the local conditions of the hills: maximum values ​​occur along the external slopes of the Western Ghats (over 2000 mm, with a wet season of 4-5 months), at the foot of the Himalayas and in the ‘Assam; lower values ​​are found in inland areas, such as the Karnataka plateau (800 mm per year and rainy season of 2-3 months), Rajasthan and especially the Thar desert (100-250 mm and rainy season of less than a month). Generally, these are violent, stormy precipitations, which begin in May-June and decrease in September, and then cease completely with the reversal of the monsoon. For India travel information, please check zipcodesexplorer.com.

Hydrography

The hydrographic network of the Indian region, tributary of the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, is highly asymmetrical due to the arrangement of the relief and the general inclination of the Deccan plateau towards the NE. The watershed runs along the Western Ghats, the edges of the Tapti and Narmada pits, the Aravalli Mountains and the low threshold (270 m) interposed between the Sutlej and the Jumna, to the advantage of the eastern basins. The largest basin is that of the Ganges, which is also asymmetrical due to the greater development of the Himalayan tributaries, which, with their strong erosive power, push the major river towards the SE with alluvial deposits. More modest are the contributions from the central plateaus and the Deccan, which reach through the Chambal and the Bet-wa (tributaries of the Jumna) and the Son. The great river enters the plain at 320 m near Hardwar, after about 300 km of mountain course, and gradually increases in range, until it divides into several branches in the vast and articulated delta of which it was assigned to the India the western section, now abandoned by the main course of the river which gradually moves towards the east; the Hugli, along which the Calcutta conurbation develops, it is a channeled branch. The waters of the Brahmaputra also flow into Bengal (of which the India includes only the middle valley), richer in water due to the great rainfall of the regions crossed. Both rivers have large flows and regimes with strong floods in spring and summer and lean in winter, however sufficient to irrigate the winter crops of wheat and barley. Of the Indus basin only about one third belongs to the India, and precisely, in addition to the aforementioned stretch of the mountain course, the upper course of the Himalayan tributaries that gave the Punjab its name (Five rivers) and vast areas between the Punjab and Gujarat, of little hydrographic interest because it is generally arid, but not without groundwater which feeds the oases of the Thar desert. The rivers of the Deccan, more or less parallel from O to East, Godavari, Krishna) and are less rich in water and more irregular because they are fed only by rains. The Mahanadi floods are frequent, particularly in Orissa. River flows to the Arabian Sea are much more modest, because in Malabar they have a short and torrential course and in Gujarat they are completely lacking. Only the Narmada and the Tapti have discreet development, which flow into the Gulf of Cambay.

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