Question

Which places in India experience sunrise first and last respectively?

Answer 1

Hint: Sunrise is that time in the morning when we see the upper edge of the sun emerge onto the horizon. It is the complete sequence that shows the solar disk approaching the horizon and even the atmospheric effects that follow it. In India every state experiences sunrise at different times depending on the position of each place.

Complete answer:
In general, the sunrise is said to happen first in the east and the sunset is assumed to happen first in the west. Since our earth is continuously rotating and it spins from west to east, naturally in a vast country like India, India's eastern most part will experience the first sunrise. Later on the western end of India too experiences sunrise, but compared to other places the west experiences the last sunrise.

The coordinates of Dong are 28.1702° N, 97.0417° E, so clearly India’s easternmost end lies in Dong of Arunachal Pradesh. The sunrise is first seen in India in the small town of Dong in the Anjaw district of the state Arunachal Pradesh. Dong was discovered to have seen the first sunrise in India in 1999. That is why it is referred to as "India's Land of the Rising Sun." In Dong, during the winter season, the sun begins to rise at around 5.54 a.m. and tends to set at around 4.30 p.m. This happens to be about an hour earlier than it does elsewhere within different parts of India.

Similarly, Guhar Moti in Gujarat is situated on India’s westernmost end since its coordinates are 23.6352°N 68.5424°E. This makes Guhar Moti the last place to experience a sunrise as compared to other states and places in India. Here the sun rises at around 7.20 am during the winters, making it more than an hour later than sunrise experienced at Dong.

Therefore the sunrise is first seen in India by Arunachal Pradesh at Dong, while sun rises last at Gujarat in Guhar Moti.

Note: Sunset, also regarded as sundown, is the polar opposite of a sunrise. Sunset is the regular lowering of the Sun underneath the horizon caused by the rotation of the Earth. Sunset time varies during the year and is dictated by the viewer's location on Earth, which is defined by altitude, longitudes and latitudes and also by the time zone.