There are several India tour packages available and if you’ve chosen the right one for you, it’s time to learn about the country itself.
The southwest monsoon dominates most of the country from late June to the end of September, bringing high humidity and heavy rain. As these winds retreat in October, the land dries out and humidity levels fall. The southeastern coasts, however, have rain and cyclonic squalls until January.
In November, with the strength of the sun diminishing, the winter season starts in the northern plain. Until February the weather remains cold (below 5°C/41°F) in the Himalaya and its foothills (where skiing is possible), pleasant in the plains (between 15°C/59°F and 20°C/68°F), and warm (above 20°C/68°F) in South India, except in the cooler uplands.
India’s summer, which runs from March to May, is hot and dry, with flurries of wind raising a dusty curtain over the northern plain and maximum daytime temperatures averaging 40°C (104CF). South India is sultry and hot but temperatures are usually bearable, between 27°C (80°F) and 29°C(84°F).
Come June, the intense heat of the northern plain causes the upper air currents to move north of the Himalaya and draw the monsoon across the entire country. Starting from the southwestern coast, it branches eastward and northward, and on reaching the Ganga delta follows the wide river valleys bounded by the Himalaya with its heavily forested foothills.
Luxuriant rainforests blanket the hills along the southwest coast, in Kerala, where the lowland lagoons are canopied by coconut trees. The coast stretches north to the estuarine plains of Goa where wide sunny beaches are lapped by the gentle waves of the Arabian Sea. The rest of the coast is mostly rocky, rising to the low red lateritic plateaus and then more steeply to the black, forest-covered slopes of the Western Ghats. Further north, in Kathiawar, the coast becomes salt-encrusted with marshy lowlands rich with flamingo.
Inland, open country covered with cotton and sunflower fields merges into rocky desert. From the Rann (saline marshlands) of Kutch in the west to the Luni River is the Great Desert, and further north between Jaisalmer and Jodhpur is the Little Desert. Here is open scrub country with rocky hills often capped by the forts of the Rajput kings. Wandering herds of sheep and goats, and camels carrying cotton and marble, are seen in this area.
Separating the desert from the Gangetic plain and the Deccan lava tableland are the rugged plateaus of Malwa, Bundelkhand and Rewa. Stony, harsh and covered with only a thin layer of soil, the plateau is drained by the Chambal, Ken and Betva rivers. Badlands are formed by the ravines made by the rivers, and fields of mustard and wheat form a patchwork of green and gold.
On the west, steeply rising from the plain to the lava plateau, is the Vindhya range of hills. The Narmada river, flowing through a narrow gorge, and the river Tapi, through a broad valley, are separated by the Satpura range. South of the Tapi are the hills housing the carved and painted caves at Ajanta and Ellora. At the mouth of the Tapi is the ancient port city of Surat, famous for its gold and silver brocade (zari). It was here, in 1608, that the British East India Company set up its first “factory”, as its trading centres were called.
By 15 June, the eastward-moving monsoon winds reach the Chota Nagpur plateau in Jhark-hand, which is drained by the Damodar. It is a wide plateau with conical and dome-shaped hills that look like gigantic bubbles.
During the three long monsoon months the brown forests of sal, bamboo and teak turn green and Adivasi peoples collect lac (the secretion of a forest insect) and mahua flowers. The steel city of Jamshedpur and the coal and iron-ore mines contribute to India’s increasing pollution and deforestation. The plateau is flanked in the east by the Rajmahal Hills, which descend steeply to the Ganga plain where the river takes a sharp bend to the sea.
