Eastern Ghats | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

The Eastern Ghats are a somewhat fractured mountain range running down much of eastern India and thus forming the eastern border of the Dekkan Plateau. The geological formation is granite, with gneiss and mica slate. The Eastern Ghats rise in the northern part of Orissa and then strike in a south-southwesterly direction, parallel to the coast and at a distance of from 80 to 250 kilometers from it. There is thus a broad and fertile coastal plain, much of it devoted to rice and coconut cultivation.

However, in the Ganjam and Visakhapattinam areas, the Ghats nearly abut on the coast; here too are found the highest peaks. With several wide breaks to allow the eastward passage of some major rivers, the Godavari, Kistna, and Kaveri, the chain continues in the same direction until it reaches South Arcot district in Tamil Nadu. Then, adopting a more westerly direction, the Eastern Ghats finally merge with the Western Ghats in the high Nilgiri Plateau. Outliers are found further south in Tiruchirappalli and Tinnevelli Districts. The average elevation of the Eastern Ghats is about 450 meters; they are thus considerably lower than the Western Ghats. In Orissa, Chhattisgarh, and Andhra Pradesh, the hills are inhabited mainly by tribal people who have a mixed farming economy supplemented by some hunting and gathering.