About Your Country

India is a vast country. Some like to call it a sub-continent. She is also the largest democratic country in the world. But she occupies 7th place in the world in respect of size. As regards population, it is second in the world, the first place is held by China. it covers an area of 3.28 million sq km. 3220 km from north to south and 2980 km from east to west 60% of the total land is fertile in 1ndia-; while 10% in China and 20% in America. There is an amalgamation of hills. mountains and deserts in this land of South Asia’. And to speak about the seas. it has surrounded the country from east, west and south The Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea and ‘lndtan Ocean meet together at Kannyakumari, the southem-most point of India, The coastal line is 6100 km in length and extends from east to west through south. The king of the mountains, Himalayas extends throughout the entire region in the north of the country with its silver-white crown as if piercing through the sky above. China. Nepal and Bhutan cover the entire north-eastem slope, Bangladesh to the south-east, Burma to the east and Pakistan to the north-west direction. Though the presence of natural forest has first been mentioned in Kautilya’s ‘Arthashastra’, the coverage of such forested area has gone down from 33% to 14% only owing to the fact that houses have been built by cutting down trees in those areas to a larger extent from time to time. h fact, there is no second country in the world like India in respect of diversity. Evergreen, deciduom moun’aineouswall typm of forests exist in India. 350 species of mammals, 2 100 species of birds, 350 types of repti'es are found in the forests of India. There are 800 National Reserve Forests, 441 Bird Sanctuaries, 25 Ti er Projects in india.