On August 15, 1947 Britishers divided India into two independent dominions viz. India and Pakistan. On January 26, 1950 India was declared a Sovereign Republic. After Independence, 552 princely states were merged and India was reorganized.
Later, some states were reorganized on the bases of languages as recommended by a commission, which was set up on October 1, 1953. Madras State was bifurcated into Tamil speaking Tamil Nadu and Telegu speaking Andhra Pradesh.
On May 1, 1960, Bombay State was bifurcated on the basis of language into Gujarat and Maharashtra. On December 18, Goa, Daman and Diu were liberated from the rule of Portuguese. On December 1, Nagaland became the 16th state of the country.
On 1 November, 1966, Punjab State was divided on the basis of language viz. Punjab and Haryana and hilly areas were merged with H.P and Chandigarh was declared a Union Territory.
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On April 2, 1970, Meghalaya was carved out of Assam State. On January 1972, North Eastern States were reorganized as such Meghalaya, Tripura, Manipur were declared as states, Arunachal and Mizoram were made Union Territories.
On April 26, 1975, Sikkim, which was an Indian protectorate, was made the 22nd state. On June 25, 1986, Mizoram was declared as the 23rd state.
On December 8, 1986, Arunachal Pradesh became the 24th Indian state. On May 11, 1987, Goa was declared as the 25th Indian state. In November 2000, three new states were created out of U.P., Bihar & M.P- they were named Uttaranchal, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh respectively.
Presently, India has 28 states and 7 Union Territories. Their names are: (1) Andhra Pradesh, (2) Assam, (3) Orissa, (4) Uttar Pradesh, (5) Kerala, (6) Jammu and Kashmir, (7) Punjab, (8) Haryana, (9) West Bengal, (10) Bihar, (11) Maharashtra, (12) Gujarat, (13) Tamil Nadu, (14) Karnataka, (15) Nagaland, (16) Madhya Pradesh (17) Rajasthan, (18) Himachal Pradesh, (19) Meghalaya, (20) Manipur, (21)Tripura, (22) Sikkim, (23) Mizoram, (24) Arunachal Pradesh, (25) Goa, (26) Chhattisgarh, (27) Uttaranchal and (28) Jharkhand.
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Union Territories
(1) Andaman & Nicobar Islands, (2) Chandigarh, (3) Dadra and Nagar Haveli, (4) Daman and Diu, (5) Pondicherry, (6) Lakshadweep and (7) Delhi. (National Capital Region)
Of the total area of 328-8 million hectares, landuse data are available for 304-7 million hectares. Its classification is as under: