THE 8 STATES OF NORTHEAST INDIA: THINK THE PANHANDLE OF A COOKING PAN
- 1. Arunachal Pradesh, 2. Assam, 3. Meghalaya, 4. Manipur, 5. Mizoram, 6. Nagaland, 7. Tripura and 8. Sikkim.
- Northeast India shares an international border of 5,182 kilometres/3,220 miles (about 99 percent of its total geographical boundary) with Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Tibet and Nepal covering an area of 262,230 square kilometres (101,250 sq miles), almost 8 percent of that of India, and is one of the largest salient in the world. A salient is a geographical entity not surrounded by water on three sides and connected to a geographical mainland. Think the panhandle of a cooking pan.
TOPOGRAPHY
- Geographically, except for Assam, the terrain of the Northeast India is hilly interspersed with valleys and plains which are watered by numerous rivers. The altitude varies from sea-level to 7,000 metres (23,000 ft) above sea level.
WEATHER
- Sikkim and Arunachal have a cold climate, while the rest of the states have hot humid summers, severe monsoons and mild winters.
POPULATION AND DEMOGRAPHIC
- The total population of Northeast India is 46 million with 68 percent of that living in Assam alone. The region’s population is a result of waves of migrations from Tibet, Nepal, Indo-Gangetic plains of mainland India, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
- Northeast India constitutes a single linguistic region with about 220 languages/dialects in multiple language families known to mankind.
BIO DIVERSITY
- The northeastern region has 1,63,799 km2 of forest, which makes for 25% of the total forest cover in in India. It is home to some of the country’s last remaining rain forests.
- India houses 4 out of the 34 biodiversity hotspots in the world. 2 of them are in Northeast India.
ADVENTURE
- When we talk adventure and active holidays, the Northeast region has everything that the rest of India has to offer – be it trekking, hiking, cycling, biking, mountaineering.
FESTIVALS
- The Hornbill Festival of Kohima in Nagaland which takes place every year from 1-7 December, has become hugely popular globally.
- The Ziro Music Festival (this year 27-30 September), voted the most organic music festival in India has captured the imagination of the entire country, particularly the youth, despite its remote location.
LAST BUT NOT THE LEAST
- Darjeeling, Kalimpong etc are NOT Northeast India. They are in North Bengal !
