Independence Day 2024: Facts you didn't know about India
Endowed with history and culture dating back centuries, more than a billion people, and innumerable religious, ethnic, and regional identities, India is not just the second-most populous country in the world. There is so much more to India than what meets the eye. So on this Independence Day, here are five amazing facts about India you probably did not know.
We have the world's only floating post office
With more than 1,55,015 post offices, India boasts of the largest postal network in the world. This means that a single post office serves an average population of 7,175 people. What's more? We also have a post office that floats on water. The world's only floating post office, the Nehru Park Floating Post Office in Dal Lake, Srinagar, was inaugurated back in 2011.
#2: Bandra-Worli Sealink has steel wires equal to earth's circumference
Taking a total of 2,57,00,000 man hours to complete, the engineering marvel called the Bandra-Worli Sealink in Mumbai weighs as much as 50,000 African elephants, and is made of steel wires of length that would equal the earth's circumference.
India has the world's highest Cricket ground
India's love story with cricket has never been a secret. This is evident in the fact that we have some of the most electrifying stadium crowds. Not just that, did you know that at an altitude of 2,444 meters, the Chail Cricket ground in Himachal Pradesh, built in 1893, as part of the Chail Military School, is the highest cricket ground in the world?
#4: The Kumbh Mela gathering was once visible from space
Kumbh Mela is known the world over for the massive crowds it attracts each year. In particular, the 2011 Kumbh Mela, with over 75 million pilgrims, was the largest ever gathering of people in the world. It was even visible from the space.
India is home to the world's wettest inhabited place
The monsoon is notorious in some parts of India. Mawsynram, a village on the Khasi Hills in Meghalaya hold the Guinness world record for being the world's wettest inhabited place, owing to its proximity to the Bay of Bengal. It receives an annual waterfall of 11,873 millimeters. Cherrapunji, in Meghalaya, is also known as one of the wettest areas in the world.
