Comparison and practice
How to tell Bangladesh from India in GeoGuessr
Read the writing first. Bengali script means Bangladesh or one of Indiaโs Bengali-speaking states (West Bengal, Tripura and Assam, where Assamese uses the same script); Hindi or any other Indian script means India. Then look for what points to Bangladesh: licence plates written in Bengali, red-and-white concrete bollards, green cage-bodied auto rickshaws and ponds right beside the road. Painted cement adverts and BJP or Congress flags point to India.
- Bangladesh clues
- 274
- India clues
- 936
- photos in the quiz
- 30
ยฉ GoogleAt a glance
What changes across the border, according to our cards. Each clue comes with its photos further down.
| Clue | Bangladesh | India |
|---|---|---|
| Script | Bengali: rounded letters with triangular shapes | Hindi (Devanagari) and other scripts; Bengali only in West Bengal, Tripura and Assam |
| Licence plates | In Bengali, on a white, black or turquoise background (turquoise only exists here) | Long, in Latin letters: white, yellow (commercial) or green (electric) |
| Bollards | Red-and-white painted concrete, mostly round | No national model in our cards |
| Coverage | Mostly Gen 3 and Gen 4; the low-quality camera only around Dhaka | Mostly a low-quality camera: brownish colours, often a big blur over the car |
| Landscape | Flat and wet: ponds, canals and fields right by the road; hills only in the east | Very varied; western Meghalaya looks like โBangladesh with hillsโ |
| Roofs | Sheet metal; tiles are rare and only near the West Bengal border | Large W-shaped tiles, very common in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar |
| Adverts and flags | No equivalent in our cards | Painted cement adverts (ACC, Ambuja, UltraTech, Shree), BJP and Congress flags |
Clue by clue
Photos from real MetaSpotter cards, with the explanation each one carries.
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01
Read the script
Bengali and Hindi both run a continuous line along the top of each word, but Bengali letters are rounder, with triangular shapes pointing left; Hindiโs Devanagari is boxier. Bengali is the language of Bangladesh, but also of West Bengal and Tripura, and Assamese uses the same script with two letters of its own, เงฐ and เงฑ: if you see them, you are in Assam, India.
ยฉ Google๐ง๐ฉ Bangladesh ยท BengaliBengali script has a continuous horizontal line (matra) running along the top of each word, like Devanagari, but its letters are more rounded with distinctive triangular shapes instead of Devanagari's boxier forms. It is the official language of Bangladesh and of West Bengal in eastern India. 
ยฉ Google๐ฎ๐ณ India ยท AssameseAssamese, spoken mainly in Assam, uses the Bengali script with a few extra letters not found in standard Bengali, most notably เงฐ and เงฑ. -
02
Licence plates
Bangladeshi plates are written in Bengali on a white, black or turquoise background, and turquoise only exists there. Indian plates are long and use Latin letters: white for private cars, yellow for commercial vehicles and green for electric ones. Latin letters on a plate point to India.
ยฉ Google๐ง๐ฉ BangladeshBangladeshi license plates come in white, black or turquoise backgrounds with Bengali script. The turquoise plate colour is unique to Bangladesh. 
ยฉ Google๐ฎ๐ณ IndiaIndian license plates are fairly long. White is the standard design, yellow is used for commercial vehicles, and green is used for electric vehicles. -
03
Bollards and rickshaws
Bangladesh uses red-and-white painted concrete bollards across the country, mostly round and sometimes square. Green auto rickshaws with a boxy, cage-like body are everywhere; they exist in other Asian countries too, so use them to confirm, not to decide.
ยฉ Google๐ง๐ฉ BangladeshBangladesh uses red-and-white painted concrete bollards along roads nationwide. Most are round, but a square version also exists. 
ยฉ Google๐ง๐ฉ BangladeshRickshaws are extremely common throughout Bangladesh, especially green auto rickshaws with a boxy cage-like body. They also appear in other Asian countries, so combine this clue with other evidence. -
04
Image quality and the Google car
Most Indian coverage was shot with a low-quality camera: brownish colours, soft detail and often a big circular blur where the car should be. Bangladesh has sharper Gen 3 and Gen 4 coverage, shot from black or white cars, and its low-quality coverage is only around Dhaka. A sharp image leans Bangladesh; a blurry, brownish one far from a city leans India.
ยฉ Google๐ฎ๐ณ IndiaThe vast majority of Indian coverage was captured with a low-quality camera nicknamed 'shitcam', recognisable by brownish colours and, often, a large circular blur over the Street View car. This same camera is also common in Cambodia and rarely in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. -
05
Water and flat land
Bangladesh is a delta: ponds, canals and flooded fields sit right next to the road almost everywhere, and roads often run raised above the fields. The only real hills are in the east, around Chattogram. Watch out for western Meghalaya, in India, which looks like Bangladesh with hills.
ยฉ Google๐ง๐ฉ BangladeshPonds, canals and agricultural fields sit right next to the roads almost everywhere in Bangladesh, a useful general clue for "identify every country" rounds. 
ยฉ Google๐ฎ๐ณ IndiaWestern Meghalaya looks like Bangladesh but with hills: hilly forests full of areca palms surrounding flat agricultural fields, plus banana trees and other palms. -
06
Roofs
Sheet-metal roofs dominate Bangladesh. Clay tiles are rare there and only show up along the West Bengal border, in Khulna division, while large W-shaped tiles are very common in West Bengal, eastern Jharkhand and eastern Bihar. A village of tiled roofs leans India.
ยฉ Google๐ง๐ฉ BangladeshBangladesh has an east/west divide in roof styles. The west, particularly Rajshahi, Khulna and Dhaka divisions, is dominated by sheet-metal hip roofs, while Rangpur and Chattogram tend to have mixed roof styles. 
ยฉ Google๐ฎ๐ณ IndiaThis tile is a larger version of the W tile, easiest to tell apart by the small spike in the middle of each tile. It's very common in West Bengal, eastern Jharkhand and eastern Bihar, but doesn't reach further north than Purnia, Bihar. -
07
Indian adverts and flags
Cement adverts painted on walls and shopfronts (ACC, Ambuja, UltraTech, Shree) cover almost all of India except the north-east, and the BJPโs lotus flags show up almost everywhere. The Congress hand flag is common too, but not in West Bengal, where regional parties have replaced it.
ยฉ Google๐ฎ๐ณ IndiaACC Cement advertisements painted on walls and shopfronts are found all over India, except in the North-East region. 
ยฉ Google๐ฎ๐ณ IndiaThe BJP is one of India's biggest national parties and its lotus-flower flags show up almost everywhere in the country, though they are notably rarer in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. 
ยฉ Google๐ฎ๐ณ IndiaThe Indian National Congress (INC), whose symbol is an open hand on the Indian tricolour, is found almost everywhere in the country. The notable exceptions are West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, where regional parties have replaced it, so you won't see INC imagery there.
The hard case: West Bengal and the north-east
West Bengal and Tripura write in Bengali too, so there the script does not decide. Look for what changes at the border: Latin letters on plates, tiled roofs, cement adverts and BJP flags on the Indian side; Bengali plates, red-and-white bollards and green cage rickshaws on the Bangladeshi side.
- West BengalBengali script, large W-shaped roof tiles very common and no Congress flags.
- TripuraBengali script; in the south, near Bangladesh, Buddhist prayer flags.
- AssamAssamese, with เงฐ and เงฑ, and trident pole tops with the tip of the middle bar bent at a right angle.
- MeghalayaThe west looks like Bangladesh with hills: areca palm forests around flat fields.
What does not decide
These clues look the same on both sides of the border, so on their own they do not decide. In MetaSpotter, when a card shows one of them, the other country is never offered as a wrong answer.
Striped signpost
Low-quality coverage
Rubber tree plantation
How to learn them and keep them
Reading this page is not enough: in a week you will have forgotten half of it. These clues stick when you review a few every day, right before you forget them. Start with Bangladesh ยท Real-world metas (44 cards) and India ยท Metas (26), then mix them with the rest of the region in S & E Asia ยท Identify.
Study S & E Asia ยท IdentifyBangladesh and India decks
More guides
Bollards
The short posts at the edge of the road. Shape, colour and reflector change by country.
Poles
Wood, concrete or metal; holes, ladders and the top of the pole give away the region.
Road lines
Yellow or white centre, edge lines, doubles, dashes: one of the most reliable metas.
Camera car
Camera generation, antennas, mirrors and the colour of the car that shot the coverage.
Clues come from Learnable Meta maps by trausi, MR_Mythic, SB387, Lireax, Major Bajor, Richardrepa, FreshBread, Stingray. Photos: Google Street View, ยฉ Google. Checked by hand by the MetaSpotter team on 19 October 2026. How we make the content