Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh (UTT-ər prə-DESH, abbr. UP; Hindi: Uttar Pradēś, pronounced [ˈʊt̪ːəɾ pɾə.ˈdeːɕ] , lit. 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is India's most populated state. The state is bordered by Rajasthan to the west, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi to the northwest, Uttarakhand and Nepal to the north, Bihar to the east, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand to the south. It is the fourth-largest Indian state by area covering 243,286 km (93,933 sq mi), accounting for 7.3 per cent of the total area of India. Lucknow serves as the state capital, with Prayagraj being the judicial capital. It is divided into 18 divisions and 75 districts. Uttar Pradesh is the Indian state with the highest number of bordering states, sharing its boundaries with nine other states and one union territory.

Uttar Pradesh was established in 1950 after India had become a republic. It is a successor to the United Provinces, established in 1935 by renaming the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, in turn established in 1902 from the North-Western Provinces and the Oudh Province. The two major rivers of the state, the Ganges and its tributary Yamuna, meet at the Triveni Sangam in Prayagraj, a Hindu pilgrimage site. Other notable rivers are Gomti and Sarayu. Most of the state is covered by the Indo Gangetic plain which is intensely farmed. The forest cover in the state is 6.1 per cent of the state's geographical area, mainly in the northern Terai. The cultivable area is 82 per cent of the total geographical area, and the net area sown is 68.5 per cent of the cultivable area.