Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh is a state in northern India. In short, people call it UP. Lucknow is the capital city of UP.

The population of the state is 166,052,859 (census 2001). And covers an area of 93,933 mi² (243,286 km²), it is bigger than the United Kingdom but smaller than Guinea.

Geography

Map of India showing Uttar Pradesh's location.

Uttar Pradesh borders Nepal and the Indian states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar. There are two hypsographical regions:-

• The larger Gangetic Plain in the north: it includes the Ganga-Yamuna Doab; the Ghaghra plains; the Ganga plains and the Terai. It has highly fertile soils and flat topography. There are also many ponds, lakes and rivers.
• The smaller Vindhya Range|Vindhya Hills and plateau region in the south. There are hills, plains, valleys and plateau. It is harder to get water.

Climate

The climate of Uttar Pradesh is mostly subtropical. However weather conditions change a lot depending on where one lives and the season.

Temperature: The average temperatures vary from 12.5–17.5°C (54.5–63.5°F) in January to 27.5–32.5°C (81.5–90.5°F) in May and June. The highest temperature recorded in the State was 49.9°C (121.8°F). It was at Gonda on May 8, 1958.

Rainfall: Rainfall is between 1,000 and 2,000 mm (40–80 inches) in the east and between 600 and 1,000 mm (24–40 inches) in the west. Most of the rain is due to the southwest monsoon. It lasts from June to September. Consequently floods are a problem during those seasons. They badly damage crops and property.

Droughts: They occur when the monsoo does not come in the usual season. It leads to crop failure.

Snowfall: In the Himalayan region of the State it usually snows from 3 to 5 metres (10 to15 feet) between December and March.

Transportation

Expressway

Airways: The state has four important airports and 23 air strips. They are in Agra, Kanpur, Lucknow and Varanasi. Lucknow is the biggest and most important airport of the state.

Railways: Almost all the major cities and even some smaller cities are linked. The state has the largest railway network in the country. It's total length is 8,546 km (2006). It has the sixth largest railway density.

Roadways: The state has largest road network in the country. The biggest is Maharashtra. There are 31 National Highways (NH). In total they are of 4,942 km (8.5% of total NH length in India). It has the seventh highest road density in the India (1,027 km per 1000 km² in 2002). It also has the largest surfaced urban road network in the country (50,721 km, as on 2002). Cities of Kanpur, Lucknow, Bareilly, Allahabad, Varanasi, Jhansi, Gorakhpur, Noida, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Mathura, Agra and Ghazipur are connected to many National Highways.

Waterways: The river Ganges - from Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh) to Haldia (West Bengal) - has been declared as National Waterway (NW)-I and 600 km of the total NW-I lies in Uttar Pradesh.