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, Law of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer
Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber, Wetlands; signed, but
not ratified - Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Desertification

Geographic note: dominates South Asian subcontinent; near
important Indian Ocean trade routes

People
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Population: 952,107,694 (July 1996 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 34% (male 168,030,766; female 159,283,151)
15-64 years: 62% (male 304,805,787; female 281,311,834)
65 years and over: 4% (male 19,148,385; female 19,527,771) (July
1996 est.)

Population growth rate: 1.64% (1996 est.)

Birth rate: 25.94 births/1,000 population (1996 est.)

Death rate: 9.61 deaths/1,000 population (1996 est.)

Net migration rate: 0.04 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1996 est.)

Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.08 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.98 male(s)/female
all ages: 1.07 male(s)/female (1996 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 71.1 deaths/1,000 live births (1996 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 59.71 years
male: 59.12 years
female: 60.32 years (1996 est.)

Total fertility rate: 3.2 children born/woman (1996 est.)

Nationality:
noun: Indian(s)
adjective: Indian

Ethnic divisions: Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and
other 3%

Religions: Hindu 80%, Muslim 14%, Christian 2.4%, Sikh 2%,
Buddhist 0.7%, Jains 0.5%, other 0.4%

Languages: English enjoys associate status but is the most
important language for national, political, and commercial
communication, Hindi the national language and primary tongue of 30%
of the people, Bengali (o