ABSTRACT
The State of Uttar Pradesh lies in northern India, on the Gangetic plain. Formerly known as the United Provinces, Uttar Pradesh acquired its current name, meaning ‘northern land’ or ‘northern province’, in 1950. Most of its northern border is an international frontier with Nepal; the rest is with Uttarakhand (known as Uttaranchal in 2000–06), which lies to the north of its eastern end. In the north-west the Ganga- Yamuna Doab stretches up an extension the tip of which touches a corner of Himachal Pradesh. To the west is Haryana, except where the National Capital Territory of Delhi has been carved out on both banks of the River Yamuna. Rajasthan also lies to the west, before a southern border continues with Madhya Pradesh, distorted by a tentacle of land that extends a corridor southwards around the town of Jhansi to include Lalitpur. There are other, minor convolutions. In the south-east there are short borders with Chhattisgarh (part of Madhya Pradesh until 2000) and Jharkhand (part of Bihar until 2000), while Bihar lies to the east. Uttar Pradesh is the fifth largest state of the Union, having an area of 240,928 sq km (93,058 sq miles), although it is by far the most populous.
