West India (Western India) or the Western region of India consists of the states of Goa, Gujarat and Maharashtra. It is highly industrialized, with a large urban population. Most of Western India was part of the Maratha Empire before colonization by the British. The regions became part of India on independence, and took their current form after the States Reorganization Act of 1956. The states are roughly bounded by the Thar Desert in the northwest, the Vindhya Range in the north and the Arabian Sea in the west. A major portion of Western India shares the Deccan Plateau with South India.
The region consists of the predominantly arid to semi-arid region of Saurashtra, Kutch and Cambay in the North. The Western Ghats and Konkan lie along the coast of Maharashtra and Goa. The Deccan plains of the Vidarbha, Marathwada in central and eastern Maharashtra define the rest of the region. The vegetation varies from tropical rainforests along the Konkan coast to thorny bushes and shrubs in northern Gujarat. The major rivers in this region are Narmada, Tapti, Godavari, Zuari, Mandovi, Krishna, Ghaggar, Chambal and many other smaller tributaries of other rivers. The Narmada and Tapti rivers generally form the boundary between Northern and Southern India.
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