India’s geographical reality is framed by the Himalaya, the Pamir Knot, the Karakoram and the Hindu Kush to the north and northwest, the Thar desert to the west and the mountainous jungles of Northeast India. India is a peninsula, flanked by the Arabian Sea to the west and southwest, and by the Bay of Bengal to the east and southeast, as it extends south into the Indian Ocean. The population of South Asia is nearly 1.9 billion, or about one-fourth of the world’s population, making it both the most populous and the most densely occupied region in the world. Mountains
First Published: Nov 07 2025 | 2:10 PM IST