Geography of India - Political Geography

Political Geography

India is divided into twenty eight states (further subdivided into districts) and seven union territories.

India's borders run a total length of 15,106.70 km (9,387 mi). Its borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh were delineated according to the Radcliffe Line, which was created in 1947 during Partition of India. Its western border with Pakistan extends up to 3,323 km (2,065 mi), dividing the Punjab region and running along the boundaries of the Thar Desert and the Rann of Kutch. Both nations delineated a Line of Control (LoC) to serve as the informal boundary between the Indian and Pakistan-administered areas of Kashmir. According to India's claim, it also shares a 106 km (66 mi) border with Afghanistan in northwestern Kashmir, which is under Pakistani control.

India's border with Bangladesh runs 4,096.70 km (2,546 mi). There are 92 enclaves of Bangladesh on Indian soil and 106 enclaves of India are on Bangladeshi soil. The Teen Bigha Corridor is a strip of land formerly belonging to India on the West Bengal–Bangladesh border which has been leased indefinitely to Bangladesh so that it can access its Dehgram–Angalpota enclaves.

The Line of Actual Control (LAC) is the effective border between India and the People's Republic of China. It traverses 4,057 km along the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. Both nations lay claim to the Aksai Chin region of northeastern Kashmir, which fell into Chinese control during the Sino-Indian War of 1962. The border with Burma (Myanmar) extends up to 1,643 km (1,021 mi) along the southern borders of India's northeastern states. Located amidst the Himalayan range, India's border with Bhutan runs 699 km (434 mi). The border with Nepal runs 1,751 km (1,088 mi) along the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India. The Siliguri Corridor, narrowed sharply by the borders of Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh, connects peninsular India with the northeastern states.