Population PressurePopulation Pressure

India is the second most populous country on Earth.

India makes up 2.4% of the world’s land mass but 16% of the world’s population.

Every year India’s population grows by a number equal to the total population of Australia.

India’s population roughly equals the total population of North and South America combined.

Water and food consumption are a constant pressure for India

MonsoonMonsoon

Parts of India receive almost five times the annual rainfall that we receive in New York.

An average of 1000 people a year die on the Indian Subcontinent from Monsoon rainfall.

Monsoons provide the Indian subcontinent with important rainfall, but they also create great destruction.

Conflict with PakistanConflict with Pakistan

Since the partition of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh in 1947 along ethnic lines there has been great tension along the borders of all three nations.

India is home to 900,000 Hindus however it is also the home to over 200,000 Muslims making it the world’s second most populous Muslim nation.

Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan have fought 4 wars.

Today Indian and Pakistani forces face each other in the disputed region of Kashmir in Northern India. Both sides (and China) claim portions of Kashmir as their own.

Both India and Pakistan contain many nationalist/extremists willing to fight the other side.

Nuclear NationNuclear Nation

In 1998 both India and Pakistan detonated nuclear weapons announcing to the other side and the world that they each have nuclear capability.

There is a fear that as tensions over Kashmir, population and the actions of extremists on both sides increase, the next conflict between the two states could be one that involves nuclear weapons.