🏔 Passes and islands
India’s gateways — the Himalayan passes that carried traders, pilgrims and armies, the tunnels and high roads built under and over them — and the more than 1,300 islands in her seas, from Barren Island’s volcano to Majuli on the Brahmaputra.
Maps show India’s boundaries as officially depicted by the Government of India. Pins mark approximate locations.
🏔 Gateways through the mountains
The Himalayas and the ranges beside them were a formidable barrier — crossed only at a few passes, which became roads for trade, faith and war.
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A barrier with a few gates
The Himalayas, with other ranges, acted as a formidable physical barrier in the past. Except for a few mountain passes — the Khyber, the Bolan, the Shipkila, the Nathula, the Bomdila — it was difficult to cross them, and this helped give the Indian subcontinent its own regional identity.
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For at least 2,500 years
The Khyber Pass
One of the main passes through the Hindu Kush. Many invaders used it to enter the Subcontinent; for at least 2,500 years it was also a major trade route linking the Subcontinent to Central Asia, and the route Buddhist scholars and monks travelled. The Hindu Shahis, who controlled it, resisted several invasions before the Ghaznavids overran them.
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Shipki La: where the Satluj breaks through
The Satluj flows almost parallel to the Indus for about 400 km before entering India. It passes through the Shipki La on the Himalayan ranges and comes out into the Punjab plains — an antecedent river, older than the mountains it cuts.
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Rohtang: where two rivers begin
The Beas rises at Beas Kund near the Rohtang Pass, 4,000 m above sea level, and the Ravi rises west of the pass in the Kullu hills. Near Rohtang the Dhaula Dhar range meets the Pir Panjal.
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1981; 2015
Lipulekh and Nathu La: the road to Kailash
Indian pilgrims to Kailash Mansarovar cross into Tibet by two routes — the Lipulekh pass and Nathu La. The Yatra resumed through both in 2025, after a hiatus of nearly five years, and continued in 2026.
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Ghats: gaps for the railways
The Western Ghats are crossed only through gaps or passes (ghats). On the hilly peninsula, railway tracks are laid through low hills, gaps or tunnels.
🚇 Tunnels and high roads
The Border Roads Organisation, set up in 1960, keeps the high passes open — and now tunnels under them, so valleys once cut off for months stay connected all year.
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May 1960
The Border Roads Organisation
Established in May 1960 to speed up economic development and strengthen defence preparedness by improving strategically important roads along the borders. It also clears snow in the high-altitude areas.
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3 October 2020
Atal Tunnel under the Rohtang
The world’s longest highway tunnel, 9.02 km long, built by the BRO in the Pir Panjal range at about 3,000 m (10,000 feet). It links Manali to the Lahaul-Spiti valley all year — a valley earlier cut off for about six months each year by snow — and cuts the Manali–Leh road by 46 km. The Prime Minister dedicated it to the nation on 3 October 2020.
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2021
Umling La: the world’s highest motorable road
The BRO built and black-topped a road through the 19,024-foot Umlingla Pass in Ladakh — the 52-km Chisumle–Demchok road. Guinness World Records recognised it on 16 November 2021 as the world’s highest motorable road, beating a Bolivian road that reaches 18,953 feet.
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9 March 2024
Sela Tunnel to Tawang
Built by the BRO at 13,000 feet on the Tezpur–Tawang road in Arunachal Pradesh, using the New Austrian Tunnelling Method, it gives Tawang all-weather connectivity across the Sela Pass. It was dedicated to the nation on 9 March 2024.
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Khardung La
NCERT’s chapter on transport shows the Khardung La pass in Ladakh as an example of the border roads the BRO builds and keeps open.
🏝 India’s islands
More than 1,300 small islands — the Andaman and Nicobar group in the Bay of Bengal, the coral islands of Lakshadweep in the Arabian Sea, and islands in India’s great rivers.
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More than 1,300 islands
India has more than 1,300 small islands, in two major groups — the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal and the Lakshadweep Islands in the Arabian Sea. With them, India’s coastline is 7,517 km; the mainland alone has 6,100 km.
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The Andaman and Nicobar Islands
About 572 islands and islets in the Bay of Bengal, in two groups — the Andaman in the north and the Nicobar in the south — separated by the Ten Degree Channel. They are believed to be the raised parts of submarine mountains; NCERT calls them ‘outposts of India’, keeping an eye on the ocean.
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Barren Island: India’s only active volcano
Some of the smaller Andaman and Nicobar islands are volcanic. Barren Island is the only active volcano in India; it sometimes erupts, sending smoke and lava into the sky.
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Saddle Peak and the island summits
The high points of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands: Saddle Peak (North Andaman, 738 m), Mount Diavolo (Middle Andaman, 515 m), Mount Koyob (South Andaman, 460 m) and Mount Thuiller (Great Nicobar, 642 m).
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Lakshadweep: islands of coral
An archipelago in the Arabian Sea close to the Malabar coast of Kerala, 220–440 km offshore. The whole group is built of coral: there are about 36 islands, of which 11 are inhabited, and the Nine Degree Channel divides it.
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Majuli: the largest river island
Majuli, in the Brahmaputra in Assam, is the largest riverine island in the world. The river’s floods leave fertile silt, and Majuli grows good paddy after them — though the floods’ losses far outweigh such benefits.
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Sri Lanka and Maldives: island neighbours
Sri Lanka and Maldives are the two island countries in the Indian Ocean that are India’s neighbours. Sri Lanka is separated from India by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait.
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6 April 2025
The new Pamban Bridge to Rameswaram
The rail bridge to Rameswaram island is India’s first vertical-lift railway sea bridge: 2.08 km long with 99 spans, and a 72.5-metre span that rises up to 17 metres so ships can sail underneath. It was inaugurated in April 2025.
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1987
Elephanta Caves
The ‘City of Caves’ on an island near Mumbai, with huge high reliefs linked to the cult of Shiva.
🚩 Islands in history
A Chola naval base, the Cellular Jail, Netaji’s tricolour of 1943 — and the new names that honour that history.
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Gupta era
Indian traders on Socotra
In the Gupta era India traded with the Mediterranean world, Southeast Asia and China. Socotra Island in the Arabian Sea was a stop on the way to the Mediterranean markets, and finds there show Indian traders over several centuries.
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The Cellular Jail
Many freedom fighters were jailed on the Andaman Islands, under the most severe conditions, in a prison complex called the ‘Cellular Jail’. It has been preserved to remind us of the sacrifices made so that India could be free.
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1943; 30 December 2018
Netaji’s tricolour and three new names
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose hoisted the tricolour on Indian soil here in 1943. On the 75th anniversary, on 30 December 2018, the Prime Minister announced that Ross Island would be named Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Dweep, Neil Island Shaheed Dweep and Havelock Island Swaraj Dweep.
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23 January 2023
21 islands for 21 Param Vir Chakra heroes
On Parakram Diwas 2023 the 21 largest unnamed islands of the Andaman and Nicobar group were named after the 21 Param Vir Chakra awardees — the largest after the first awardee, the second largest after the second, and so on.
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13 September 2024
Port Blair becomes Sri Vijaya Puram
The capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands was renamed Sri Vijaya Puram in September 2024, to free the nation from colonial imprints. The Home Minister recalled that the islands once served as a naval base of the Chola Empire.
🌐 Islands of the world
Lakhs of islands of every size — from coral specks to Greenland.
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What is an island?
Pieces of land surrounded by water on all sides, too small to count as continents, are called islands. Continents are surrounded by water too, but are too large to be called islands. There are lakhs of islands on the planet.
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Greenland, the largest island
Greenland is the largest island in the world: you would have to add up the areas of India’s ten largest states to reach its size.
How we check: geography and history cards use NCERT’s own words; tunnels, high roads, bridges and island names are from the Press Information Bureau; the Kailash Mansarovar routes from the Ministry of External Affairs. Every phrase is found in its source when the page is built.