Geography of India

What the official syllabus says

GPSC Preliminary Examination, General Studies, under the heading Geography:

• Physical Geography in relation to World, India and Gujarat: Major physical divisions, Earthquakes, landslides, Natural drainage, Seasonal Climate Regions, Atmospheric disturbance, Cyclone, Natural Vegetation: Parks and Sanctuaries. Major Soil types, Rocks and Minerals, etc.
• Social Geography in relation to World, India and Gujarat: Distribution, Density, Growth, Sex-ratio, Literacy, Occupational Structure, SC and ST Population, Ethnic group, Linguistic group, Rural-Urban components, Urbanization and Migration, Metropolitan regions, etc.
• Economic Geography: Major sectors of economy, Agriculture, Industry and Services-their salient features. Basic Industries-Agro, Mineral, Forest, Fuel and Manpower based Industries, Transport and Trade, etc.
• Geography in the context of current trends.

Topics in detail

Learn India with a map: every river, hill range, protected area and port on this list should be placeable.

Physical geography of India

• Location, extent, neighbours, the Tropic of Cancer and the standard meridian
• Physical divisions: the Himalayas, the northern plains, the peninsular plateau, the Thar desert, the coastal plains, the islands
• Drainage: Himalayan rivers (Indus, Ganga, Brahmaputra systems) and peninsular rivers (Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri, Narmada, Tapi); lakes; river linking
• Climate: the monsoon mechanism, seasons, distribution of rainfall, climatic regions
• Atmospheric disturbances: cyclones of the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, western disturbances, loo, cloudbursts
• Earthquake zones, landslide-prone areas, floods and droughts
• Soils: alluvial, black, red, laterite, arid, saline, forest; soil erosion and conservation
• Natural vegetation: forest types; national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, biosphere reserves, tiger reserves
• Rocks and minerals: Dharwar and Gondwana systems; distribution of iron ore, manganese, bauxite, coal, petroleum

Social geography of India

• Population: distribution, density, growth (Census 2011), sex ratio, literacy
• Occupational structure; SC and ST population and their distribution
• Ethnic and linguistic groups; languages of the Eighth Schedule
• Rural and urban population; urbanisation; million-plus cities and metropolitan regions
• Migration: internal and international, causes and effects

Economic geography of India

• Agriculture: types of farming, cropping seasons, major crops and their regions
• Industries: agro-based (cotton textiles, sugar), mineral-based (iron and steel, cement), forest-based (paper), fuel-based (petrochemicals, refineries), manpower-based (IT, services)
• Energy resources: coal, petroleum, natural gas, hydro, nuclear, solar and wind
• Transport: roads, railways, pipelines, waterways, ports and airports; trade routes

Geography in the context of current trends

• Places in the news: new protected areas, Ramsar sites, World Heritage Sites
• Natural disasters of the year (cyclones, floods, earthquakes) and their geography
• Climate events, heatwaves, glacier retreat; new mineral finds, infrastructure projects

Overlaps

Mains General Studies-III (C) Geography covers the physical features, resources and demography of India and Gujarat.