India is the seventh largest country in the world by size and it boasts an incredibly diverse collection of landscapes which are bordered along the eastern, western and southern coast by the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean respectively.  In the north, the country shares its borders with Bangladesh, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and Pakistan, and just off the southern coast – alongside a number of islands – lies Sri Lanka.  The country is largely divided up into a number of main regions geographically.  These include the great mountains in the north; the Thar desert to the northwest; the Indo-Gangetic plain characterised by three important rivers (the Ganges, the Indus and the Brahmaputra); the peninsular plateau divided by central highlands and scattered with shallow valleys and rounded hills; and the coastal plains home to a great number of smaller rivers.  There are also two main groupings of islands, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal, and the Lakshadweep Islands in the Arabian Sea.

 In terms of climate, India can be divided into a number of regions.  For the most part, the country has a tropical climate which throughout most of the interior is a mixture of wet and dry tropical weather.  In northern parts there is a humid tropical climate and along the western coast lies wet tropical areas.  Stretching in a strip up the centre of the country is a semi-arid climate, which also stretches across the north-west.  Although stereotypical images may bring to mind the heat of India, the country can also experience extreme cold.  This takes place largely in the northern mountainous regions which include the cold, arid and windswept Himalayas.