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Geography
Location: Southern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, between Burma and Pakistan
Land: total - 3,287,590 sq km
land - 2,973,190 sq km
water - 314,400 sq km
border countries - Bangladesh 4,053 km, Bhutan 605 km, Burma 1,463 km, China 3,380 km, Nepal 1,690 km, Pakistan 2,912 km
coastline - 7,000 km
arable land- 54.35%
permanent crops - 2.66%
other uses - 42.99% (1998 est.)
natural resources - coal (fourth-largest reserves in the world), iron ore, manganese, mica, bauxite, titanium ore, chromite, natural gas, diamonds, petroleum, limestone, arable land
current environmental issues - deforestation; soil erosion; overgrazing; desertification; air pollution from industrial effluents and vehicle emissions; water pollution from raw sewage and runoff of agricultural pesticides; tap water is not potable throughout the country; huge and growing population is overstraining natural resources
Cities: Capital - New Delhi (pop. 11 million).
Other major cities - Mumbai, formerly Bombay (15 million); Calcutta (12 million); Chennai, formerly Madras (6 million); Bangalore (5 million); Hyderabad (5 million); Ahmedabad (3.7 million).
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