India

The vast majority of the coverage in India was taken with what’s commonly referred to as “shitcam”, which is a low-quality camera that can typically be recognised by the brownish colours and often, but not always, by a large circular blur covering the Street View car.

NOTE: Within Asia, shitcam coverage is also common in Cambodia and can rarely be seen in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

While most of India is covered in shitcam, there is also a significant amount of Generation 3 trekkers throughout the country.

India drives on the left side of the road.

A wide variety of scripts can be found in India. Most of them can be used to narrow down the region.

English is also an official language in India and can be seen on a lot of signage.

Indian licence plates are typically fairly long, with the most common design being white. Commercial vehicles typically use yellow plates, while electric vehicles use green.

India typically has black and white striped signposts.

NOTE: Bangladesh and Sri Lanka also have black and white signposts.

The most common Indian utility pole is a concrete square pole with a trident pole top.

Beware that many regions have their own distinct poles and poletops.

NOTE: Indian poles will almost always be made of concrete or metal. Wooden poles are extremely uncommon.

Hindi is the most common language in India and can be found in many central and northern regions. It uses the Devanagari script, which can be recognised by the line going through the top of each word and the straight vertical lines found in the majority of all letters.

Marathi, found in Maharashtra, also uses the Devanagari script, however it sometimes uses the letter ळ which is not found in Hindi.

Punjabi can be found in Punjab in northwestern India. While the script looks somewhat similar to Hindi, it can generally be differentiated by the softer shape of the letters and the horizontal bar being broken over certain letters. It also has some distinctly different features, such as the letters ਨ, ਲ and ਅ as well as a diacritic in the shape of a soft curve beneath a letter.

Gujarati, found in Gujarat, has a script with several similarities to the Hindi script, however it notably lacks the horizontal line at the top of every word.

Bengali is found in northeastern India and has a similar look to Devanagari (Hindi), however it can usually be recognised by the many letters featuring left-facing triangular shapes.

NOTE: This is also the language found in Bangladesh.

Assamese, mainly found in Assam, also uses the Bengali script, with the addition of some characters, most notably ৰ and ৱ.

Kannada is found in Karnataka and has a script with a lot of smooth curves and small circles. It is very similar to the Telugu script, with Telugu having one additional feature described in the next tip. Many characters also feature a distinct squiggly tail in the top right corner, which is less common in Telugu.

Telugu, found in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, has a script very similar to Kannada, but you’ll often see diacritics resembling checkmarks at the top of letters.

The Tamil script is found in Tamil Nadu and has a distinct combination of curves, straight lines and 90° angles. Some letters also have diacritics shaped like dots.

NOTE: Tamil is also commonly found in Sri Lanka.

The Oriya script is found in Odisha and has a curvy look, with many letters having wide semi-circles covering the top. Many letters have a distinct diacritic in the shape of a wide curve above the top of the letter. A useful mnemonic is that the shape of the characters resembles a skull emoji.

The Malayalam script can be found in Kerala and mostly consists of somewhat simple-looking curvy letters, often containing upside-down U-shapes.

Mizo, found in Mizoram, is the language most commonly found on the Indian coverage other than English, which uses the latin script.

While English can be found anywhere in India, Meghalaya is the only region which almost exclusively uses English.

Yellow tuk tuks with black roofs are common in southern India. 

NOTE: They can also rarely be seen in northeastern India close to the Tripura-Assam border.

Concrete holey poles are unique to Gujarat and the Union territory of Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

Gujarat uses a variety of poletops, some of which can be used to identify other states. Beware that holey poles take precedence over poletop metas.

NOTE: They are rarely found in other states especially Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh.

Poles divided in two sections, in a similar fashion to Brazilian poles, are common in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. They can sometimes be found in bordering states like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, close to the state border.

Metal poles with a mesh pattern are unique to Sikkim.

Metal holey poles are common in Kerala.

Thin grey metal poles are seen all over northeastern India and in the Himalayan region of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. You will commonly see two of these poles in close proximity.

Electricity counters in Punjab are usually mint green with small window-like squares. They can rarely be seen in Haryana.

In Karnataka, and sometimes in Haryana, you can find trident poletops where the central insulator is attached directly to the top of the pole, while the other two are attached to a horizontal crossbar positioned slightly further down. There is also a variant having several bars instead of one.

Upside down triangle poletops placed below the top of the pole are commonly found in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, and less commonly in Madhya Pradesh.

Poles in Madhya Pradesh often have a metal bar shaped like an upside down A slightly below the top of the pole.

A connector on the pole which looks like an upside down trapezoid is most common in Chhattisgarh and somewhat common in Meghalaya and Tripura, but can rarely be found in many other states.

NOTE: They can also be paired with Holey Poles in Gujarat and Ladder Poles in Andhra Pradesh, thus only use the trapezoid when no other pole meta is present.

A variety of poletops attached to the pole with two vertical bars forming a tall and narrow rectangle can be found in West Bengal.

In West Bengal you may also find poletops containing two crossbars which are connected to each other with thin vertical supports on either side. The lower bar is connected on either side to the pole with diagonal supports.

In the northeast you may find poles with a combination of an even and uneven poletop.

Poles with two diagonal bars forming a ‘<’ shape are common in Assam and Meghalaya.

In Assam and Meghalaya you commonly see poles with two crossbars, each with two insulators. If there are more than two bars, you should be in Meghalaya.

NOTE: They can rarely be seen in other states.

Trident poletops with the tip of the middle bar bent at a 90° angle can be found in Assam.

Poletops with a short crossbar above a longer crossbar can be found in Goa.

Small metal poletops in the shape of a window are found in Punjab and Haryana.

Markings on poles and trees, consisting of one black stripe in-between two white ones, are common in Tamil Nadu.

Pole paint consisting of five or more thin black and yellow stripes can be found in Delhi.

Pole paint consisting of exactly four thicker black and yellow stripes can be found in Bihar.

Small yellow pole markings are commonly found in Kerala.

NOTE: Similar stickers can rarely be found in other states.

Rounded roof tiles are common in central India. They often appear disorganised and are kept in rows/columns that are not completely straight.

Roofs in southern India are characterised by more organised tiles that are bright orange and flat with a ridge in the middle. It is particularly common in Tamil Nadu.

NOTE: Similarly shaped tiles with a darker brown colour are common further north.

Metal roofs, with a small triangle near the top, are common in Northeast India.

Houses made of square panels separated by thin beams are found in Northeast India.

Houses or huts with thatched roofs are mainly found along the east coast and northern plains. Large hay mounds are also generally more common in this region. Note that thatched roofs from Uttar Pradesh to Odisha tend to be made of fine pieces of hay whereas thatched roofs from Odisha to Tamil Nadu tend to be made of dried palm fans.

Gurdwaras, which can typically be recognised by their white domes and ornate walls, are most common in Punjab. You can also sometimes recognise them by the Sikh Khanda symbol, which represents the religion.

Goa and Kerala are two of the most developed states in India and often have very wealthy and modern homes.