Paragraph on India as a Land of Diversities

Here is your short paragraph on India: a land of diversities:

India is a land of great diversities and contrasts. It is but natural that an area as vast as the Indian sub­continent should have considerable physical diversity.

The extremes of physical and human geography of India are extreme indeed. In the south is the Plateau which is one of the oldest and least disturbed land masses on the earth’s surface.

Its rocks have never been extensively covered by sea since their formation in the pre-cambrian period over 3,000 million years ago. In contrast to this, the Himalayan mountain ranges and the Great Plains represent the most recent formations.

The denudation processes have made these contrasts still sharper. While the mountain ranges in the north have very youthful topography with sharp peaks and steep-sided valleys, the peninsular plateau shows old and senile topography with gently rising ridges and wide valleys.

The Aravalis and the Himalayas are perhaps the oldest and the youngest ranges on the earth’s surface. The differences are most striking even in the landforms of recent origin. Within a distance of a few hundred kilometres from north to south, one can reach from the highest peak of the world to the flat, featureless and monotonous plain.

Even the rivers of the Himalayan and the peninsular regions have contrasting characteristics. The Himalayan Rivers have their origin in the snow covered areas. As such, they receive water even in dry season due to snow melt and are perennial. On the other hand, rivers of the peninsular plateau carry only rain water and the quantity of water carried by them decreases considerably in dry season.

They are, therefore, termed as seasonal rivers. Moreover, the rivers of the peninsular plateau have reached maturity whereas the Himalayan Rivers are still in their youthful stage. Most of the Himalayan region is made of sedimentary rocks while the peninsular plateau has mostly igneous and metamorphic rocks.

Hemmed between the Himalayas in the north and the peninsular plateau in the south, lies one of the greatest alluvial plains of the world. This great plain stretching in a great curve from Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal consists of extremely fertile soils washed down by the streams and rivers for thousands of years.

Climatic contrasts are no less pronounced than the physiographic contrasts. Although a typical monsoonal realm, Indian climate exhibits a wide range of climatic variations. While the mercury may dip to (-) 40°C during winter nights at Dras or Kargil in Jammu and Kashmir, the temperature may stand at a fairly high level of 20°C to 25 °C at Chennai.

In summer, the day temperature at Barmer in Rajasthan may soar to 48°C-50°C while the higher reaches of the Himalayas may still remain snow covered. The differences are equally striking in rainfall patterns also. Mawsynram near Cherrapunji receives an annual rainfall of over 1,221 cm as compared to only 12 cm received at Jaisalmer.

Several places in Garo hills receive more rainfall in a single day than received by Jaisalmer in a long span of ten years. The people of Mumbai experiencing maritime climate may not have any idea of extremes of climate. But Delhiites living in continental climate have to pass through the entire cycle of seasonal changes.

As a result of climatic extremes, the natural vegetation varies from dense tropical evergreen forests of the Western Ghats, North-Eastern states and Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the scanty shrub bush vegetation of the Thar Desert and its adjoining areas.

Extremes and diversities of the physical features and climatic conditions have produced cultured heterogeneity of a high order. On one end of the scale are the vast uninhabited areas of Ladakh and the Thar Desert and on the other end are the river valleys and deltas accounting for some of the highest population densities in the world and that too based on purely agrarian economy.

The length and breadth of the country comprises a rich mosaic of religions, languages, cultures and races and is, thus, heterogeneous in character and spirit. All levels of economic development from that of the Stone Age to the satellite and computer age are seen in the country.

In large parts of the country, purely tribal, agricultural, industrial and commercial economies exist simultaneously. Considering its physical and cultural diversities India is often called the ‘epitome of the world’.