New Delhi

Sister cities

• Jersey City
• Samarkand
• Moscow

History

Under British rule, Calcutta was the capital of India until December 1911. However, it had become the centre of the nationalist movements since the late nineteenth century, which led to the partition of Bengal by Viceroy Curzon. This created a massive upsurge in political and religious activity including political assassinations of British officials in Calcutta. The anti-colonial sentiments among the public led to a complete boycott of British goods, which forced the colonial government to reunite Bengal and immediately shift the capital to New Delhi. Old Delhi had served as the political centre of several empires of medieval India and the Delhi Sultanate, most notably of the Mughal Empire from 1649 to 1857. During the early 1900s, a proposal was made to the British administration to shift the capital of the British Indian Empire, as India was officially named, from Calcutta on the east coast, to Delhi. The Government of British India felt that it would be logistically easier to administer India from Delhi, which is in the centre of northern India. During the Delhi Durbar on 12 December 1911, George V while laying the foundation stone for the viceroy's residence in the Coronation Park, Kingsway Camp, declared that the capital of the Raj would be shifted from Calcutta to Delhi. Three days later, George V and his consort, Mary, laid the foundation stone of New Delhi at Kingsway Camp. Large parts of New Delhi were planned by Edwin Lutyens, who first visited Delhi in 1912, and Herbert Baker, both leading 20th-century British architects. The contract was given to Sobha Singh. The original plan called for its construction in Tughlaqabad, inside the Tughlaqabad Fort, but this was given up because of the Delhi-Calcutta trunk line that passed through the fort. Construction…

Geography

With a total area of , Since the city is located on the Indo-Gangetic Plain, there is little difference in elevation across the city. New Delhi and surrounding areas were once a part of the Aravali Range; all that is left of those mountains is the Delhi Ridge, which is also called the Lungs of Delhi. While New Delhi lies on the floodplains of the Yamuna River, it is essentially a landlocked city. East of the river is the urban area of Shahdara. New Delhi falls under the seismic zone-IV, making it vulnerable to earthquakes. It lies on several fault lines and thus experiences frequent earthquakes, most of them of mild intensity. There was a spike in the number of earthquakes between 2011 and 2015, most notable being a 5.4 magnitude earthquake in 2015 with its epicentre in Nepal, a 4.7-magnitude earthquake on 25 November 2007, a 4.2-magnitude earthquake on 7 September 2011, a 5.2-magnitude earthquake on 5 March 2012, and a swarm of twelve earthquakes, including four of magnitudes 2.5, 2.8, 3.1, and 3.3, on 12 November 2013. Delhi features a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cwa), closely bordering a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen BSh), with hot summers accompanied by frequent thunderstorms locally known as andhi, and cool winters that are characterised by dense fog. The city's rainfall pattern is heavily influenced by the summer monsoon entering in late June and continuing till mid-September. Summers are long, extending from mid April to late September, with the monsoon season occurring in the middle of the summer. Winter starts in November and peaks in January. Winters are very mild. The annual mean temperature is around ; monthly daily mean temperatures range from approximately . New Delhi's highest temperature ever recorded is on 28 May 2024 at Met Delhi Mungeshpur…

Most-observed species

• Common Myna

  Acridotheres tristis (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  16,929
• House Crow

  Corvus splendens Vieillot, 1817 · Aves
  16,707
• Rock Pigeon

  Columba livia J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  16,631
• Black Kite

  Milvus migrans (Boddaert, 1783) · Aves
  15,168
• Rose-ringed Parakeet

  Psittacula krameri (Scopoli, 1769) · Aves
  13,551
• Red-vented Bulbul

  Pycnonotus cafer (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  11,260
• Jungle Babbler

  Turdoides striata (Dumont, 1823) · Aves
  11,106
• Brown-headed Barbet

  Psilopogon zeylanicus (J.F.Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  9,936

Most recent

• M 4.1 — 2025-07-11
  10 km NW of Kharkhauda, India
• M 4.5 — 2025-07-10
  8 km NNE of Jhajjar, India
• M 4.2 — 2025-02-17
  10 km SSE of Nāngloi Jāt, India
• M 4.1 — 2022-12-31
  Haryana, India
• M 3.7 — 2022-06-27
  11 km SE of Rohtak, India
• M 3.9 — 2021-07-05
  7 km WNW of Kharkhauda, India