Geology

The Western Ghats are not a full-fledged mountain range, but represent a shifted edge of the Deccan Plateau. They were probably formed during the breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana about 150 million years ago. Geophysicists Barren and Harrisson of the University of Miami argued that the western coast of India formed between 100 and 80 million years ago, after breaking off from Madagascar. Soon after the breakup, the peninsular region of the Indian Plateau drifted through the area of ​​modern Reunion (21°06′ S, 55°31′ E). Major eruptions created the Deccan Plateau, a wide basalt formation in central India. These volcanic processes led to the formation of the northern third of the Western Ghats, their dome-shaped outlines. The underlying rocks were formed more than 200 million years ago. They can be seen in some places such as the Nilgiris.

Rivers

The Western Ghats form one of the watersheds of India. They give rise to important rivers of peninsular India flowing from west to east into the Bay of Bengal, such as the Krishna, Godavari and Cauvery, and from east to west into the Arabian Sea, the Karamana. Reservoirs have been built on many rivers in Maharashtra and Kerala.

Climate

The climate of the Western Ghats is humid and tropical, varying depending on the altitude and distance from the equator. At an altitude of more than 1500 m in the north and more than 2000 m in the south, the climate is closer to temperate.

The average temperature here is +15°C, in some places in winter the temperature drops to 0°C. The coldest periods coincide with the wettest ones.

The mountains stop the westerly monsoon winds that carry rain, and therefore receive a lot of rainfall, especially on the western slopes. Dense forests also contribute to rainfall in this area. 3000-4000 mm of precipitation falls annually.

Flora and fauna

The Western Ghats have high biodiversity, including endemic species.

The mountains are home to more than 130 species of mammals, about 180 species of amphibians, and more than 500 species of birds. About one hundred species of fish live in reservoirs. Among the endemic ones, the vandera, spiny dormouse, Nilgiri tahr, purple frog, South Indian toad and others are known. Interestingly, about 80% of the amphibian species living in the mountain range are found nowhere else.

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Excerpt describing the Western Ghats

How must the “people” who gave such orders have felt??? I think they didn’t feel anything at all, because their ugly, callous souls were black.

Suddenly I saw a very beautiful castle, the walls of which were damaged in places by catapults, but mostly the castle remained intact. The entire courtyard was littered with corpses of people drowning in pools of their own and others' blood. Everyone's throat was cut...
– This is Lavaur, Isidora... A very beautiful and rich city. Its walls were the most protected. But enraged by unsuccessful attempts the leader of the crusaders, Simon de Montfort, called for help all the rabble he could find, and... 15,000 “soldiers of Christ” who came to the call attacked the fortress... Unable to withstand the onslaught, Lavur fell. All residents, including 400 (!!!) Perfects, 42 troubadours and 80 knights-defenders, brutally fell at the hands of the “holy” executioners. Here, in the courtyard, you see only the knights who defended the city, and also those who held weapons in their hands. The rest (except for the burned Qataris) were slaughtered and simply left to rot in the streets... In the city basement, the killers found 500 women and children hiding - they were brutally killed right there... without going outside...
Some people brought a pretty, well-dressed young woman, chained in chains, into the castle courtyard. Drunken whooping and laughter began all around. The woman was roughly grabbed by the shoulders and thrown into the well. Muffled, pitiful moans and screams were immediately heard from the depths. They continued until the crusaders, by order of the leader, filled the well with stones...
– It was Lady Giralda... The owner of the castle and this city... All her subjects, without exception, loved her very much. She was soft and kind... And she carried her first unborn baby under her heart. – North finished harshly.
Then he looked at me, and apparently immediately understood that I simply had no more strength left...
The horror ended immediately.
Sever sympathetically approached me, and, seeing that I was still trembling heavily, he gently put his hand on my head. He stroked my long hair, quietly whispering words of reassurance. And I gradually began to come to life, coming to my senses after a terrible, inhuman shock... A swarm of unasked questions was annoyingly swirling in my tired head. But all these questions now seemed empty and irrelevant. Therefore, I preferred to wait to see what the North would say.
– Sorry for the pain, Isidora, but I wanted to show you the truth... So that you understand the burden of Katar... So that you don’t think that they easily lost the Perfect ones...
– I still don’t understand this, Sever! Just like I couldn’t understand your truth... Why didn’t the Perfect Ones fight for life?! Why didn't they use what they knew? After all, almost each of them could destroy an entire army with just one movement!.. Why was there any need to surrender?
– This was probably what I talked to you about so often, my friend... They just weren’t ready.
– Not ready for what?! – out of old habit, I exploded. – Not ready to save your lives? Not ready to save other suffering people?! But all this is so wrong!.. This is wrong!!!
“They were not warriors like you are, Isidora.” – Sever said quietly. “They didn’t kill, believing that the world should be different.” Believing that they could teach people to change... Teach Understanding and Love, teach Goodness. They hoped to give people Knowledge... but, unfortunately, not everyone needed it. You are right in saying that the Cathars were strong. Yes, they were perfect Mages and possessed enormous power. But they did not want to fight with FORCE, preferring to fight with the WORD. This is what destroyed them, Isidora. That's why I'm telling you, my friend, they weren't ready. And to be very precise, the world was not ready for them. The earth, at that time, respected strength. And the Cathars brought Love, Light and Knowledge. And they came too early. People were not ready for them...

Rising above the plains as the ancient supercontinent Gondwana broke up.
The Western Ghats, or Sahyadri, is a vast mountain system stretching from north to south, from the Tapti River valley to Cape Comorin. This mountain system forms the western edge of the Deccan Plateau, which occupies almost the entire Hindustan Peninsula. The Western Ghats are separated from the Indian Ocean by a narrow strip of plains: their northern section is called the Konkan, the central section is the Canara, and the southern section is the Malabar Coast.
The names of the mountains reflect not only their position in Hindustan, but also appearance: Ghats means "steps" in Sanskrit. Indeed, the western slope mountain range high and steep, and it descends in steps to the coastal plains that stretch along the coast of the Arabian Sea. The stepped landscape of the mountains was the result of ancient tectonic activity, the “impact” of the tectonic plate of the Deccan Plateau on less elevated areas of the earth’s crust. The process lasted millions of years at varying speeds. The Western Ghats are not a true mountain range, but the shifted edge of the Deccan basalt plateau. These movements occurred 150 million years ago, when the proto-continent Gondwana was breaking up. Therefore, the northern section of the Western Ghats is composed of a layer of basalt up to 2 km thick, and in the south less significant layers of gneiss and a variety of granite - charnockite - predominate.
The highest peak of the Western Ghats - Mount Ana Mudi - is also the highest point in India south of the Himalayas.
In contrast to the monolithic ridges of the north, the south is dominated by individual massifs scattered here and there with irregularly contoured peaks.
The eastern slope of the Western Ghats are gently sloping plains descending towards the interior regions of Hindustan.
The Western Ghats are the most important watershed of India: here are the sources of the rivers flowing from west to east and emptying into the Bay of Bengal - Krishna, Godavari and Kaveri, and from east to west - Karaman.
Western Ghats play decisive role in shaping the climate of the entire Hindustan Peninsula, preventing the movement of humid air masses from the Arabian Sea, brought by the western monsoons. If in the west of the mountains almost 5 thousand mm of precipitation falls per year, then in the east it is five times less. Therefore, the steep western slopes of the mountains are covered with tropical rainforests (almost all cut down for firewood and for plantations), and the flatter and drier eastern slopes are covered with vast shrouds, where individual candelabra-shaped spurges, acacias and deleb palms stand among the grass.
Communication between people living on both sides of the Western Ghats is facilitated by transverse tectonic valleys separating the mountains. They became original roads that connected the Malabar coast and the Deccan plateau.
For the same reason, the Western Ghats have always attracted invaders who wanted to occupy these few trade routes from the sea inland. The mountains witnessed the emergence of the largest Indian empires and were part of British colonial India. Nowadays they are located on the territory of almost a dozen Indian states.
The Western Ghats have a surprisingly diverse fauna, with many species of flora being endemic.
There is a clear difference in the population composition on both sides of the Western Ghats. The indigenous people of the Western Slopes are small tribal groups who speak many languages ​​but are united by common traditions and religions. Here they worship the spirits of their ancestors, poisonous snakes, buffaloes. The main tribes are Konkani and Tuluva.
Unlike many other geographical areas of India, the Western Ghats are not as developed in advanced technology and tourism. Mostly they do it here agriculture, growing the so-called “English” vegetables and fruits cultivated since the time of the British colonial East India Company: potatoes, carrots, cabbage, and fruits - pears, plums and strawberries. The British heritage also includes the production of hard cheeses.
But the greatest wealth of the Western Ghats is tea: terraces with rows of tea bushes were made back in late XIX V. under the leadership of the British East India Company. After the British left, the plantations were preserved, and today India is the second country in the world in terms of tea production after China.
For the sake of tea in the Western Ghats region, almost all the sacred groves that have surrounded every temple since ancient times have been destroyed. The few remaining are owned by village communities and are governed by a council of elders.
The Western Ghats are also the most a large number of protected areas in India. This is where the last ones left in the country survive rare species animals: lion-tailed macaque, Indian leopard, Nilgiri ibex (living on Mount Ana-Mudi), sambar and muntjac deer, spiny dormouse, Nilgiri harza, hooded gulman primate. The total number of species under threat of complete destruction and living in the Western Ghats region is about 325.
Currently, the climate of the Western Ghats is undergoing significant changes. Previously, every year from September to December, people from all over the world gathered on the slopes of the Western Ghats, especially in Anaikati, to admire the magnificent butterflies. Now the number of fluttering insects has sharply decreased. Scientists see the reasons for this phenomenon in global climate change, and the Western Ghats turned out to be the most sensitive to them of all regions of the world. Forest fires and the expansion of the plantation road network also played a role.
Cities in the Western Ghats are located at a significant altitude above sea level, for example, the popular Indian resort - the city of Udagamandalam - is located at an altitude of 2200 m. The largest city in the Western Ghats is Pune, the first capital of the Maratha Empire.
Another famous city in the Western Ghats is Palakkad. It lies adjacent to the wide (40 km) Palakkad Pass, which separates the southernmost part of the Western Ghats from the northern one. In the past, the Palakkad Pass was the main route of population migration from the interior of India to the coast. The passage also serves as a major source of wind energy: the average wind speed here reaches 18-22 km/h, and large wind farms have been built throughout the passage.

general information

Origin: tectonic.

Inner Ranges: Nilgiri, Anaimalai, Palni, Kardamom Hills.

Administrative affiliation: states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Kanyakumari.

Cities: Pune - 5,049,968 people (2014), Palakkad - 130,736 people. (2001), Udagamandalam (Tamil Nadu) - 88,430 people. (2011).
Languages: Tamil, Badaga, Kannada, English, Malaya Lam, Tulu, Konkani.

Ethnic composition: Konkani, Tuluva, Mudugar, Irula and Kurumbar tribes.

Religions: Hinduism (majority), Islam, Catholicism, animism.
Currency unit: Indian rupee.
Large rivers: Krishna, Godavari, Kaveri, Karamana, Tapti, Pikara.
Large lakes: Emerald, Porthimund, Avalanche, Upper Bhavani, Kodaikanal.

Major airports: Coimbatore (international), Mangalore (international).

Numbers

Length: 1600 km from north to south.
Width: up to 100 km from east to west.
Average altitude: 900 m.

Maximum height: Mount Ana Mudi (2695 m).

Other peaks: Mount Doddabetta (2637 m), Hecuba (2375 m), Kattadadu (2418 m), Kulkudi (2439 m).

Climate and weather

Average January temperature: +25°С.

Average temperature in July: +24°С.

Average annual precipitation: 2000-5000 mm, on the eastern slope - 600-700 mm.
Relative humidity: 70%.

Economy

Hydroelectric power.

Wind power plants.

Agriculture: crop production (tea, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, pear, plum, strawberry).

Service sector: tourism, transport, trade.

Attractions

Curious facts