MH Police Bharti · Bite-size lessons
Indian Geography
About 6 min · General Knowledge & Current Affairs · English
Time worked out from the lesson's 353 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.
Indian Geography is a topic in the Maharashtra Police Bharti exam. Questions typically test factual recall — longest river, highest peak, state-wise crops, major ports, and boundary-sharing countries. The syllabus spans physical features (mountains, rivers, climate), economic geography (agriculture, minerals, industries), and political geography (states, UTs, boundaries).
Key ideas
- India's Location: Lies entirely in the Northern Hemisphere; extends from 8°4'N to 37°6'N latitude and 68°7'E to 97°25'E longitude. Tropic of Cancer (23°30'N) passes through 8 states.
- Physiographic Divisions: India has 6 major divisions — (1) The Himalayas, (2) Indo-Gangetic Plain, (3) Peninsular Plateau, (4) Coastal Plains, (5) Thar Desert, (6) Islands (Andaman-Nicobar and Lakshadweep).
- Himalayan System: Three parallel ranges — Himadri (Greater Himalaya, includes Everest, Kanchenjunga; K2 is in the Karakoram, not the Himadri), Himachal (Lesser Himalaya, includes Pir Panjal, Dhauladhar), and Shiwaliks (Outer Himalaya, youngest).
- River Systems: Himalayan rivers are perennial (snow-fed + rain-fed); Peninsular rivers are rain-fed and seasonal. Ganga system drains the largest area in India.
- Monsoon Mechanism: Southwest Monsoon (June–September) brings 75% of India's rainfall. Northeast Monsoon (October–December) affects Tamil Nadu coast.
Watch out for
- Confusing Godavari with Krishna: Godavari is the longest peninsular river (1465 km). Krishna is second (1400 km). Both originate in Maharashtra but Godavari from Nasik, Krishna from Mahabaleshwar.
- Mixing up westward-flowing rivers: Narmada, Tapi, Mahi, and Sabarmati are major west-flowing rivers; the Periyar and many small Western Ghats rivers also flow west. Students wrongly include Godavari or Krishna.
- Wrong highest peak: Kanchenjunga is India's highest peak (8586 m). K2 is higher but lies in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Everest is in Nepal.
Quick reference
- India = 28 States + 8 UTs; 7 land neighbours + 2 island neighbours.
- Ganga = longest river in India; Godavari = longest peninsular river.
- Rajasthan = largest state by area; Goa = smallest.
- Gujarat = longest coastline; UP = most populous state.
- Tropic of Cancer = 8 states (GR-MP-CG-JH-WB-TR-MZ).
Check yourself: 3 questions
1. The Tropic of Cancer passes through how many Indian states?
2. Which of the following rivers does NOT originate in India?
3. The only active volcano in India is located in which Union Territory?
This lesson is cut from the topic's note, not rewritten. Fact-checked on 21 Oct 2026: an AI-assisted check of this note against cited sources; the errors it found were corrected that day. Some errors may remain. The questions are from Shishya's validated question bank.
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