The East-West extent of India is 2933 kilometres, but the North-South extent is 3214 kilometres. Thus, North-South extent is longer than East-West extent by 281 kms. The fact is that the latitudinal extent (29°02′) and the longitudinal extent (29°18′) of the country are almost of the same value. This is due to the spherical shape of the earth. The equator is the longest circle on the earth (one degree of longitude measures 111 km.). But the length of other parallels goes on decreasing from the equator towards the poles due to the curvature of the earth. At 25° latitude, the length of one degree of longitude is 100 kms. Therefore, the East-West extent is shorter than North-South extent in kilometres. The East-West extent for 30° will be reduced by 30 x 10 kms = 300 kms approximately.
