Indo-Gangetic plain in the context of "Northern India"

North India is a geographical region, loosely defined as a cultural region comprising the northern part of India (or historically, the Indian subcontinent) wherein Indo-Aryans (speaking Indo-Aryan languages) form the prominent majority population, while Tibeto-Burmans (speaking Tibeto-Burman languages) form the significant minority population. It extends from the Himalayan mountain range in the north to the Indo-Gangetic plains, the Thar Desert, till Central Highlands. It occupies nearly two-quarters of the area and population of India and includes one of the three mega cities of India: Delhi. In a more specific and administrative sense, North India can also be used to denote the northern Indo-Gangetic Plain within this broader expanse, to the Thar Desert.

Several major rivers flow through the region including the Indus, the Ganges, the Yamuna and the Narmada rivers. North India includes the states of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and union territories of Chandigarh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Occasionally, states of Western, Central and Eastern India are referred as "North Indian" in a broader term.

East India is a region consisting of the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odishaand West Bengal and also the union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The states of Bihar and West Bengal lie on the Indo-Gangetic plain. Jharkhand is situated on the Chota Nagpur Plateau. Odisha lies on the Eastern Ghats and the Deccan Plateau. West Bengal's capital Kolkata is the largest city of this region. The Kolkata Metropolitan Area is the country's third largest metropolitan region. The region is bounded by Bhutan, Nepal and the state of Sikkim in the north, the states of Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh on the west, the state of Andhra Pradesh in the south and the country of Bangladesh in the east. It is also bounded by the Bay of Bengal in the south-east. It is connected to the Seven Sister States of Northeast India by the narrow Siliguri Corridor in the north east of West Bengal. East India has the fourth-largest gross domestic product of all Indian regions.

The Chota Nagpur Plateau (IPA: [t͡ʃʰoːʈaː naːɡpʊɾ]) is a plateau in eastern India, which covers much of Jharkhand state as well as adjacent parts of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal and Bihar. The Indo-Gangetic plain lies to the north and east of the plateau, and the basin of the Mahanadi River lies to the south. The total area of the Chota Nagpur Plateau is approximately 65,000 square kilometres (25,000 sq mi).

India is a union of twenty-eight states and eight union territories. As of 2011, with an estimated population of 1.210 billion, India occupies 2.4 percent of the world's land surface area but is home to 17.5 percent of the world's population. The Indo-Gangetic plains are among the most densely populated areas of the world. The eastern and western coastal regions of Deccan Traps are also densely populated regions of India. The Thar Desert in western Rajasthan is one of the most densely populated deserts in the world. The northern and north-eastern states along the Himalayas contain cold arid deserts with fertile valleys. These states have less population density due to indomitable physical barriers.