Eastern Ghats

Eastern Ghats or Pūrbaghāṭa are a discontinuous range of mountains along India’s eastern coast. They run from West Bengal through Orissa and Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu in the south passing some parts of Karnataka. They are eroded and cut through by the four major rivers of southern India, the Godavari, Mahanadi, Krishna, and Kaveri. The mountain ranges run parallel to the Bay of Bengal. The Deccan Plateau lies to the west of the range, between the Eastern Ghats and Western Ghats.

The Eastern Ghats are not as high as the Western Ghats. The climate of the higher hill ranges is generally cooler and wetter than the surrounding plains and the hills are home to coffee plantations and enclaves of dry forest.  The Bilgiri Hills, which run east from the Western Ghats to the River Kaveri, forms a forested ecological corridor that connects the Eastern and Western Ghats, and allows the second-largest wild elephant population in India to range between the South Eastern Ghats, the Biligiri and Nilgiri Hills, and the South Western Ghats. The famous temple Malai Mahadeshwara Hills Temple is situauted in Chamarajanagar District in the Karnataka state on the Eastern Ghat.

Important Facts on Eastern Ghats

• Jindhagada is the highest mountain in the Eastern Ghats situated in Araku, district Vishakapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
• The region boasts of fertile soil but hydropower generation here is not as profitable as it is in the Western Ghats.
• Eastern Ghats are older than the Western Ghats, and have a complex geologic history, related to the assembly and break-up of the ancient supercontinent of Rodinia and the assembly of the Gondwana supercontinent.
• The Eastern Ghats is the homeland for many Buddhist ruins from Orissa to south andhra.
• The Eastern Ghats harbour primarily tropical moist deciduous vegetation, which represents species of high economic, timber, medicinal  Eastern Ghats are highly significant in terms of its biodiversity. Of the estimated 3,200 flowering plant taxa, there are about
• 528 tree taxa under 271 genera belonging to 80 families distributed in different regions of Eastern Ghats. In total 454 species under 243 genera and 78 families are endemic to Eastern Ghats.
• Based on geological and tectonic considerations, the Eastern Ghats in Orissa starts from North of Similipal in Mayurbhanj district and runs through Malkangiri.
• Seventeen districts of Orissa come under the Eastern Ghats including 14 protected areas (13 wild life sanctuaries, one Biosphere reserve, one National Park, two tiger reserve and one Ramser Wetland).