Question

the short note of the following.

1. The Indian desert
2. The Central Highlands
3. The Island groups of India

Answer 1

(i) The Indian desert lies towards the western margins of the Aravali Hills. It is an undulating sandy plain covered with sand dunes called barchans. This region receives very low rainfall below 150 mm per year (15 cm) . It has arid climate with low vegetation cover. Streams appear during the rainy season. Soon after they disappear into the sand as they do not have enough water to reach the sea. Luni is the only large river in this region.
ii) The part of the peninsular plateau lying to the north of the Narmada River covering a major area of the Malwa plateau is known as the Central Highlands. The Vindhyan range is bounded by the Central Highlands on the south and the Aravali range on the northwest. The flow of the rivers draining this region, namely the Chambal, the Sind, the Betwa and Ken is from southwest to northeast, thus indicating the slope. The Central Highlands are wider in the west but narrower in the east.  The eastward extensions of this plateau are locally known as the Bundelkhand and Baghelkhand. The Chotanagpur plateau marks the further eastward extension, drained by the
Damodar River.

(iii) India has 2 main island groups, namely Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar island.
The Lakshadweep consists of many small islands located opposite the Kerala coast in the
Arabian Sea. The islands of this group are formed of coral deposits called ‘atolls’ in
Malayalam which refer to their ring or ‘horse-shoe’ shape. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands,
on the other hand, are larger in size. They are more in number and more widely scattered.
There are about 200 islands in the Andaman group and 19 islands in the Nicobar group.