Geography

Geography of South Asia
__The Basic Overview__

There are many landforms in South Asia. The world’s tenth largest plateau, lush jungles, and deep river valleys are filled in this area. Their environment shows the beauty of Asia. The whole area takes up around 1.73 million square meters. Temperatures of this area usually stay warm. In summer it stays from 37.77 °C and in winter it goes down to around 21°C.

There are many water features in India that were also mentioned in history. The Indus river is one of the main sources of water found in the area. Also there are monsoon seasons where it floods everywhere. Around 1,140 cm of rain falls and so the river is always filled with water.

The Thar Desert:

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The Thar Desert is located in eastern Pakistan and north western Indian state of Rajasthan. It’s also known as the Great Indian Desert. It’s77,000 square miles. The environment is very harsh and the extreme temperature variations found in this desert combined to hold back the growth of vegetation.======

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In the Thar Desert, the people are divided between the Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs. Basically in the desert, there are covered by sand and plains with hills. The winds are really strong and there are few salt-water lakes which provides a good environment for the desert animals.======

The Deccan Plateau:

The Deccan Plateau is hundreds of miles of high lands stretched across the middle of India. The highest elevation is 100m above sea level in that area. The Deccan Plateau is bordered by three main mountain ranges and deserts. The eastern and western parts of the Deccan Plateau are bordered by the Eastern and Western Ghats. This region of plateaus are homes to many animals and also inhabitants. The top is bordered by the Himalayas. Some of the biggest rivers of China run through the Deccan Plateau.

There is not much rainfall in the Plateaus, because of the Himalayas. Rainclouds precipitate near the Himalayas and so not much rain falls in the Deccan Plateaus. Rivers start from the Himalayas and end up into the Bay of Bengal through the Plateau. The area mostly has rainy/wet seasons and dry. Dry in the summer and wet throughout the winter. The average temperature around the area during the summer stays around 40° C most of the time.



The Himalayas:

It’s a mountain range that separates India subcontinent and Tibetan Plateau. In Sanskrit it means ‘abode of snow’ and is known as the ‘roof of the world. The Himalayas range is the highest in the world and it includes Mount Everest, which is the highest peak. It stretches across 6 countries and is the source of 3 rivers. Throughout, the Himalayas has lakes all over known as tarns. Because it’s so tall it actually affects the climate in South Africa. It makes the weather much warmer than it would have been because it blocks the Arctic winds. Even if the Himalayan mountain range is the highest in the world, they are one of the youngest mountains. For thousands of years they formed a natural barrier with it’s vast size. This automatically prevented people from Indian subcontinent mingling with people from China and Mongolia. The size prevented trade routes and military conquering. People started climbing it after 1921 when the borders were first opened but it wasn't until May, 29th 1953 that someone actually reached the top. Before and after than many lives were lost and more than 185 deaths were counted.

Resources: http://www.beyondbooks.com/wcu91/3a.asp = South Asia http://www.indianetzone.com/40/deccan_plateau.htm = Deccan Plateau