India’s topography is exceptionally diverse and can be understood in several broad belts and landforms:
- **Highest point:** **Kangchenjunga** (8,586 m), on the India-Nepal border, is widely recognized as India’s highest peak. - **Lowest areas:** Sea level along extensive coastal belts of the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal; some local salt flats and marsh areas are very low-lying. - **Northern mountains:** The Himalayas include snow peaks, deep valleys, glaciers, and young folded mountain terrain prone to landslides and seismic activity. - **Northern plains:** The Indo-Gangetic-Brahmaputra plains are broad, low, fertile, and heavily alluvial, with significant floodplains. - **Peninsular plateau:** The Deccan is an ancient plateau of hard rocks, dissected by river valleys and edged by hill ranges. - **Western Ghats:** A steep escarpment and mountain chain running parallel to the western coast, with high rainfall and major biodiversity. - **Eastern Ghats:** More discontinuous and lower than the Western Ghats, intersected by several east-flowing rivers. - **Desert and semi-arid terrain:** The Thar Desert in Rajasthan includes dunes, scrub, and dry plains. - **Coastal zones:** India has a coastline of more than 7,500 km including islands, with beaches, deltas, lagoons, estuaries, and mangrove areas. - **Islands:** The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are partly mountainous and volcanic in origin; Lakshadweep is largely coral atoll terrain.
Topographic risks include flooding in major plains and deltas, cyclones along the eastern and some western coasts, erosion in hilly areas, glacial hazards in the Himalayas, and coastal vulnerability in low-lying settlements.