Physical map of India
Physical map of India shows the shape of the land with shaded relief and colors for elevation. Rivers and lakes are drawn in blue, and dashed lines show country borders. Download the labeled map or use the version without names as a worksheet.
India uses Natural Earth’s India worldview. Sovereignty over Kashmir is disputed; elevation colors do not express a position on sovereignty.
How to read this map
Named features on this map include Himalayas, Hindu Kush, Karakoram, Indo-Gangetic Plain, Deccan Plateau, Western Ghats, Eastern Ghats, Vindhya Range, Thar Desert, Chin Hills, Naga hills, Western Ghats, Satpura Range, Khasi Hills, Aravalli Range, K2, Nanda Devi, Kangju Kangri, Mount Nun. The terrain colors help locate these features within the surrounding lowlands, plateaus and mountain belts.
The mapped river network includes Godävari, Sutlej, Mahäna Nadï, Krishna, Yamuna, Narmada, Chenab, Jhelum. Only selected rivers are labeled at this scale; a missing label does not mean that a river is absent.
Greens show lower elevations; tan and brown show higher land, with pale tones toward the highest terrain. Shadows emphasize the slopes. Vertical relief is exaggerated to make landforms easier to read, so the map is not a slope survey. Blue tones distinguish seas from land; the legend is a guide to land elevation, not a chart of water depth.
The relief uses Terrain Tiles, a composite of SRTM, GMTED2010 and ETOPO1 elevation data distributed through the AWS Open Data program. Boundaries, rivers, lakes and feature names come from Natural Earth. These are small-scale educational maps rather than navigation or engineering surveys.
Blank physical map
The blank version keeps the mapped features and removes the place labels. Download it for a geography worksheet or practice identifying the features.
Features and names
| Reference | Name or description |
|---|---|
| Named physical feature | Himalayas |
| Named physical feature | Hindu Kush |
| Named physical feature | Karakoram |
| Named physical feature | Indo-Gangetic Plain |
| Named physical feature | Deccan Plateau |
| Named physical feature | Western Ghats |
| Named physical feature | Eastern Ghats |
| Named physical feature | Vindhya Range |
| Named physical feature | Thar Desert |
| Named physical feature | Chin Hills |
| Named physical feature | Naga hills |
| Named physical feature | Western Ghats |
| Named physical feature | Satpura Range |
| Named physical feature | Khasi Hills |
| Named physical feature | Aravalli Range |
| Named physical feature | K2 |
| Named physical feature | Nanda Devi |
| Named physical feature | Kangju Kangri |
| Named physical feature | Mount Nun |
Data sources and license
- Natural Earth (public-domain geography): Public domain.
- Terrain Tiles / Mapzen (SRTM, GMTED2010, ETOPO1): Open elevation data; source attribution retained.
Map design and rendered images: Atlas of Maps, CC BY 4.0. Source databases retain their own licenses; the map license does not replace them.
Also see the political map of India, with cities, internal divisions, a location map and printable outline maps.
Frequently asked questions
What does a physical map show?
A physical map shows landforms and water: mountains, plateaus, lowlands, rivers, lakes and seas. This map uses elevation colors and hill shading instead of coloring each country separately.
Can I download physical map of india without labels?
Yes. The blank relief map retains the terrain, rivers and outlines but removes place names. Both versions are available as PNG and PDF; the PDF uses A4 paper and can be scaled to US Letter.
Use this map
You can download, print and share this map for free, in class, in school projects, in presentations and on websites, as long as you credit the source: Physical map of India · Atlas of Maps (atlasofmaps.com), license CC BY 4.0.