Natural resources: coal (fourth-largest reserves in the world), iron ore, manganese, mica, bauxite, titanium ore, chromite, natural gas, diamonds, petroleum, limestone
Land use: arable land: 55% permanent crops: 1% meadows and pastures: 4% forest and woodland: 23% other: 17%
Irrigated land: 430,390 sq km (1989)
Environment:
current issues: deforestation; soil erosion; overgrazing;
desertification; air pollution from industrial effluents and vehicle
emissions; water pollution from raw sewage and runoff of agricultural
pesticides; tap water is not potable throughout the country; huge and
rapidly growing population is overstraining natural resources
natural hazards: droughts, flash floods, severe thunderstorms common;
earthquakes
international agreements: party to - Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity,
Climate Change, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification,
Hazardous Wastes, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
Pollution, Tropical Timber, Wetlands, Whaling; signed, but not
ratified - Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Desertification, Law of
the Sea
Note: dominates South Asian subcontinent; near important Indian Ocean
trade routes
@India:People
Population: 936,545,814 (July 1995 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 35% (female 159,921,309; male 168,812,255)
15-64 years: 61% (female 274,105,407; male 296,145,798)
65 years and over: 4% (female 18,870,762; male 18,690,283) (July 1995
est.)
Population growth rate: 1.77% (1995 est.)
Birth rate: 27.78 births/1,000 population (1995 est.)