NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 1 Latitude, longitude and India's natural boundaries — Let's Explore

Book page 3 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.

Do you recall your lesson on latitudes and longitudes? Look at the map. Can you read, approximately, the latitude and longitude where India lies?

Answer

Reading the grid printed along the edges of the physical map, the Indian mainland lies roughly:

Latitude: about 8°N to 37°N
Longitude: about 68°E to 97°E

So India lies wholly north of the Equator and wholly east of the Prime Meridian — that is, in the northern and eastern hemispheres. If the island groups are included, the country reaches down to about 6°N in the Nicobars.

Why it matters: the Tropic of Cancer (23½°N) runs right across the middle of India. That is why the south is tropical and hot all year, while the north has a colder winter — one reason the country has so many different crops, forests and ways of life.

Tip: latitude is read along the side of the map (north–south position) and longitude along the top and bottom (east–west position). Take the number of the nearest printed line — the question only asks for an approximate reading.

Q2.

Identify the above features on India’s physical map.

Answer

The features named just before this box are India's four natural boundaries. On the physical map:

Feature	Where to look	What it does
The Himalayan Mountain range	The whole northern edge, a wide brown-and-white arc	A natural barrier in the north
The Thar Desert	The yellow patch in the west, mostly in Rajasthan	Marks the western limit, along with the sea
The Arabian Sea	Blue, to the west of the peninsula	The western sea boundary
The Indian Ocean	Blue, to the south, below Kanyakumari	The southern boundary
The Bay of Bengal	Blue, to the east of the peninsula	The eastern boundary

Also find India's neighbours named in the chapter — Pakistan to the north-west, Nepal, Bhutan and China along the Himalayas, Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east, and Sri Lanka across the narrow sea to the south.

Why it happens: mountains, desert and sea all make movement difficult. Together they separated India from the rest of Asia and helped give it its own climate, culture and history — exactly what Sri Aurobindo's quotation at the start of the chapter says.

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