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Just like every Asian countries featured on this website, we will touch on
some facts about India before we move on to tourist attractions and other
travel India related information and articles.
India Geography
India is a massive country and since it is so huge, its geography is very rich
and diverse. India has a land mass of 3.28 million sq km or 1.26 million sq
miles making it the seventh largest country in the world. This means that
India occupies 2.4% of the earth's land mass.
The country shares borders with many other countries but it is
set apart from its neighbors by the mountain ranges of the Himalayas. The
Indian subcontinent also touches 3 large bodies of water, namely the Bay of
Bengal to the east, the Arabian Sea to the west, and the Indian Ocean to the
south.
India's 26 states offers almost
every kind of landscapes imaginable from an abundance of magnificent mountain
ranges to huge protected natural national parks to provide tourists and other
visitors fantastic opportunities for eco-tourism and nature appreciation.
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The country's northern border is dominated by Nepal and the Himalayas, the
world's highest mountain range, sometimes referred to as “Roof Of The Earth”.
To the northeast, it borders small mountain passes between Nepal,
Tibet, Bangladesh, and Bhutan,
then spreads out to meet Myanmar (formerly called Burma) in an area sometimes
known as the "Eastern Triangle." India also shares its western border with
Pakistan and the Arabian Sea.
Indian Population and Culture
India has a population of more than 1.2 billion people as at 2007 and that is
about one-sixth of the entire world's population. As such, India has the
second largest population just behind its giant neighbour, China.
Considering the vast expanse of the country, the population is naturally very
diverse. Can you imagine that the country is represented by more than two
thousand ethnic groups speaking about 2,000 dialects and 30 languages although
there are four major families of languages (Indo-European, Dravidian,
Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman languages) as well as a language isolate (the
Nihali languagespoken in parts of Maharashtra).
Although the Hindus make up some 80% of the Indian population, the
country is also home to the third largest Muslim population in the world after Indonesia
and Pakistan.
India Tourist Attractions
Tourists are now beginning to realize that with such rich diversification of
the population and interesting geography, there are many treasures in India
for the tourist to visit and marvel at. Foreign tourist arrivals are growing
at double digit annually and this tourist dollar contribution to the country
is massive. In fact, the tourism industry is the second foreign exchange
earner and India is working full steam ahead to further develop its tourist
attractions.
Tourists visit India for its diasporas of sights, cultural traditions,
diversity of landsape, such as from the mangroves parks of the Sunderbans to
the sizzling Thar Desert and the bustling cities of Mumbai
(formerly called Bombay) and New
Delhi to the quintessential villages of Khajuraho and Hampi.
The more adventurous tourists may challenge the mighty Himalayas or go
scuba diving in the blue waters around the Andaman sea. History buff tourists
will be delighted with the many mighty historical monuments such as the Taj
Mahal, Akbar Tomb, Agra Fort, India Gate just to name a few. We will visit
some of India's tourist attractions state by state in future articles.
More travel articles on India
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