Eastern Ghats

The Eastern Ghats are a discontinuous range of mountains that run in a north-south alignment more or less east of the Deccan plateau and pass through Odisha state in the north and Telangana-Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu state in the south, traversing some parts of Karnataka state, namely, Bellary, Kolar and Chamarajnagar districts. They are older than the Western Ghats, and have a complex geological history related to the assembly and breakup of the ancient supercontinent of Rodinia and the assembly of the Gondwana supercontinent.

At their southern end, the Eastern Ghats form several ranges of low hills, the southernmost of which are the Sirumalai, Alaghar and Karanthamalai Hills.

The central part of the Eastern Ghats consists of two parallel ranges running approximately north-south, parallel to the Coromandel Coast for close to 430 km between the Krishna and Pennar rivers. These are the lower Velikonda Range to the east and the higher Palakonda-Lankamallai-Nallamallai Ranges to the west. The average elevation is about 520 m which reaches 1100 m at Bhairani Konda and 1048 m at Gundla Brahmeswaram.

The Maliya and Madugula Konda ranges are located in the northern portion of the Eastern Ghats and generally range in elevation between 900-1400 m. The prominent summits in these ranges include the highest peak of the Eastern Ghats- Jindhagada Peak (1690 m), Arma Konda (1680 m), Gali Konda (1643 m) and Sunkrametta (1620 m). The highest mountain peak in the state of Odisha is Deomali (1672 m) which is situated in the Koraput district. The Similipal Massif is considered the farthest northern extension of the Eastern Ghats.

The Eastern Ghats are cut through by four major rivers of southern India, namely, the Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna and Kaveri.

The Biligiri Rangan hills (B.R. hills) and Malai Mahadeshwara hills (M.M hills) in Chamarajnagar district of Karnataka run east from the Western Ghats to the river Kaveri in Mettur (Tamil Nadu) and form a forested ecological corridor that connects the Eastern and Western Ghats.

The Eastern Ghats region falls under tropical monsoon climate receiving rainfall from both South-West monsoon and North-East retreating monsoon. The rainfall ranges from 60 cm to 160 cm. The mean temperature in January ranges between 20° C and 25° C. The maximum temperature goes up to 41° C during summer season. The climate of the higher hill ranges is generally cooler and wetter.

Eastern Ghats are rich in floristic diversity and home to several rare, endemic and endangered taxa. Vegetation varies considerably with altitudes and show a distinct zonation of forest types such as scrub jungles, deciduous forests, dry & semi-evergreen forests, evergreen forests and sholas. More than 4500 species of Angiosperms occur in this region which constitute about 13% of the flowering plants of India.

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