Geography of Delhi

Delhi is located at 23.38 degree north and 77.13 degree east in the Northern part of India and bounded by Haryana State on the Northwest and South, Rajasthan state on the Southwest and Uttar Pradesh state on the east. The metropolis city is demarcated into three parts with the Gangetic plains forming the major part, the Yamuna flood plain and the Delhi ridge. The flood plain is filled with rich and fertile alluvial soil that makes agriculture suitable around that area but the flood line can sometimes reach a massive height of 318 metres destroying crops around it. The ridge is seen dominating and originating from the Aravalli Hill range encircling the south through to the west, northwest and northeast region of the city while the sacred Yamuna River flows through Delhi and the Hindon River separates Ghaziabad towards the eastern region of Delhi and it is well connected with road bridges and Metro Subways across the Yamuna River.

Delhi covers an area of 1484 Sq. Km. out of which 783 Sq. Km. is under the rural and 700 Sq. Km. is under the urban section. The land stretches about 51.9 km long and 48.48 km wide. The region falls under the seismic zone IV which makes it prone to earthquakes; however, the city has not witnessed any major earthquake as such but certain trembles have been experienced because of earthquakes in Gujarat and neighbouring places.

The concept of creating a National Capital Region was planned back in 1962 with the aim to develop a metropolitan section in order to divert increasing population to those areas and to protect the infrastructure of the city from excessive planned development.

Four states were pooled in to form a part of the National Capital Region or NCR of India which is the National Capital Territory of Delhi or NCT that covers 1483 Sq. Km., Haryana that contributed to 13413 Sq. Km. of area, Uttar Pradesh that contributed to 10853 Sq. Km. of area and Rajasthan that contributed to 7829 Sq. Km. of area.

NCT lies in the centre of NCR that consists of Old Delhi, New Delhi and the central seat of the government of India with a population of 13,782,976 people making it the largest populated area in the entire NCR. NCR region of Haryana constitutes of Faridabad, Gurgaon and Sonepat which is going to soon be a part of NCR and developments are in a fast track mode. They bound NCT on the west and south and form the northern and western part of NCR. The NCR region of Rajasthan does not share boundaries with Delhi but constitutes of Alwar that forms the southwest core part of NCR. While Uttar Pradesh forms the major part of the eastern portion of NCR and is bounded by Delhi on the east that constitutes of Ghaziabad and the Gautam Buddha Nagar area curved out of Noida and Greater Noida.

Delhi does not follow any specific pattern geographically and it is widely erratic. It transforms from agricultural fields in the north to the dry parched hills which branches out of the Aravalli Hills of Rajasthan in the south. To explain its boundaries in a better way, the extreme end spans from Sarup Nagar in the northern part to Rajorki in the southern part. Towards the extreme west is Najafgarh and extreme east is the holy Yamuna River, Shahdara and Bhajanpura which are major shopping centres. The main city of Delhi ends in Saket on the south and central northern area is Connaught Place whilst the western boundary limits at National Highway – 8.