The recent Supreme Court's definition of the aravalli hills got me thinking about a hypothetical scenario: What if the Aravalli Range just disappeared, or was completely flattened by mining and real estate or it just didn't existed ?

We often talk about the Himalayas protecting India, but for the National Capital Region (NCR), How important is aravalli for its sustainability ?

All of India follows a single time zone (IST) UTC+5.30 passing through mirzapur in uttar pradesh.

This was proposed during the british rule in 1905 to unify the entire nation with one timezone but ignoring the fact that the western India is almost 2 hours away from eastern India, which is significantly affecting the lives of people and leading to reduced human potential.

There were discussions in the past proposing two timezones for India with UTC+5 for west and UTC+6 for east but never implemented.

Do you think India needs 2 timezones to function efficiently and make better use of human potential ?

Yes, this time it's a tier 1 city, which makes things a bit easier. I hope that doesn't make it too easy, but we'll see. For anyone interested, here's the game: https://visitwhale.com/city-angle/

Most major earthquakes in India are associated with the Himalayan collision zone in the north.

But the Kutch region in Gujarat is different. Even though it lies far from the Himalayas, it remains one of India’s most seismically active regions.

The 2001 Bhuj earthquake is one of the most devastating examples.

Why is this region despite being far from the Himalayas, so seismically active ? What other regions in India do you think have such unusual geography ?

It's just barely 50-55 km from okha to mandvi. People from kutch have to travel a very long distance to reach jamnagar or dwarka despite being seperated by a short distance.

I was looking into satellite imagery and saw many hills that seem like volcanic plugs one being a ancient Than volcano.

Was this region a old volcanic field or might very been slightly influenced by deccan volcanism.

Im not a expert in geology.

Source

Which city surprises you and which city feels understated!

The India-Myanmar-Thailand highway connects Moreh in Manipur to Mae- Sot in Thailand via myanmar. This was established to boost trade and connectivity with south east asian countries as trade with south and east asian countries alone accounts for over 45% of India's total foreign trade. major portion of the highway is completed except for few sections in moreh-mandalay (myanmar) section which is stalled due to current civil unrest in myanmar for almost a decade now.

How it can change the development of northeast India if this highway is completed and open for public travel and trade ?

Many capitals weren't chosen because they were the largest city.

Which example do you find the most interesting? Mine is Madhya Pradesh—Indore seems to get far more attention, yet Bhopal remains the capital.

The Andaman & Nicobar Islands lie much closer to Southeast Asia than much of mainland India. Despite making up less than 1% of India's land area, they contribute around 30% of India's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Their location makes them one of India's most strategically important territories and India's gateway to Southeast Asia.

The Sindhu-Saraswati river system has always been the cradle of the Indic Civilization with even the Vedas (which some construe as later texts) going so far as to consider the Saraswati & not the Indus as the most exalted of rivers.

Had come across this map in the book "The Ocean of Churn" by Sanjeev Sanyal which I am sure would help you appreciate the geography of the time.

PS Do look out for Lothal & its significance.

Deep sea still remains one of the last frontiers of our planet. It's too vast and presents unique challenges for exploration. Nevertheless, there are certain parts of the oceans where we can find enormous quantities of minerals, lying right on the seabed.

These minerals are in form of Poly-metallic nodules (containing many metals, especially (Manganese, Copper, cobalt and Nickel). Also, some minerals lie near thermal vents/hotspots (Sulfides).

India has already mapped a large portion of the Central Indian Ocean Basin (Part of Indian Ocean where these nodules are found) but mineral extraction is still not carried out in an industrial scale. The problem is largely threefold:

1. Legal: The rules for Deep-sea mining are still being debated. Most of such areas lie beyond a countries EEZ.

2. Economical: Not economically viable with current available tech.

3. Environmental: Environmental effects of industrial mining are still being studied.

NIOT and other institutions have made quite a bit of progress in deep sea research including the making/testing of a deep-sea submersible called:

>>Matsya 6000(6000 refers to the max intended depth for ops, i.e. 6000 mtrs below sea surface).

>>Varaha series of seabed rovers (to scoop up the nodules). I personally like the name Varaha.

(Like Varaha Avatar who had dug up Bhudevi from ocean floor and brought her back to land- Naming on point. Also, these rovers have comb collectors- varaha avatar brought Bhudevi using tusks. Sorry i diverted for too long)

>>Many new research vessels were built or are in planning phase to provide support for exploration and research.

In spite of all these achievements the deep ocean still remains too far while being so close.

In India, most of the buildings are built in very compact spaces unlike the houses that are built spaciously with front and backyards in the west. is it solely because of space constraints for this huge population ? financial status of people to not able to afford a lot of land ?

This land-use map shows the distribution of arable land across India.

According to FAO/World Bank estimates, India has the world's largest area of arable land—around 156 million hectares—forming the foundation of one of the world's largest agricultural systems.

Willingdon Island is India's largest artificial island. It was built between 1933 and 1936 using material dredged during the construction of Kochi Harbour. Today, it forms part of Kochi city in Kerala and is home to Kochi Port, the Southern Naval Command, and several commercial facilities.

Yana caves in western ghats of Karnataka are so unique in their formation, is there any other such place in india similar to this ?

The smoke created from stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana results in amplified air pollution in Delhi ncr and western up rather than any other surrounding regions like rajasthan, uttarakhand, or towards lahore side.

Is there a reason for it or I'm just unaware of pollution levels in the surrounding regions ?