EASTERN GHATS- SNIPPETSHOTS- తూర్పు కనుమలు- స్నిప్పెట్షాట్స్

 EASTERN GHATS

The Eastern Ghats are a discontinuous range of mountains along India's eastern coast.

• ·         The Eastern Ghats pass through Odisha, Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu in the south passing some parts of Karnataka as well as Telangana.
• ·         They are eroded and cut through by four major rivers of peninsular India, viz., Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna, and Kaveri.
• ·         The Eastern Ghats are a collection of irregularly shaped low ranges that typically run parallel to the Bay of Bengal’s shoreline from northeast to southwest.
• ·         With the isolated hill ranges lining the eastern edge of the Deccan plateau and coastal plain, they are “tors” of geological antiquity.
• ·         A tor which is also known by geomorphologists as either a castle koppie or kopje, is a large, free-standing rock outcrop that rises abruptly from the surrounding smooth and gentle slopes of a rounded hill summit or ridge crest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

• It is a chain of highly broken and detached hills starting from the Mahanadi in Odisha to the Vagai in Tamil Nadu. They almost disappear between the Godavari and the Krishna.

EASTERN GHATS PDF

·         They lack structural unity as well as physiographic continuity. As a result, these hill groupings are often recognized as separate entities.

·         Between the Godavari and the Krishna rivers, the Eastern Ghats lose their hilly character and are occupied by Gondwana formations (KG Basin is here).

·         The Dandakaranya region between the Mahanadi and Godavari rivers is home to the biggest single sector, which is the relic of an old mountain range that was eroded and then revived.

·         The Eastern Ghats reappear as more or less a continuous hill range in Cuddapah and Kurnool districts of Andhra Pradesh where they are called as Nallamalai Range with a general elevation of 600-850 m.

·         The southern part of this range is called the Palkodna range.

·         To the south, the hills and plateaus attain very low altitudes; only Javadi Hills and the Shevroy-Kalrayan Hills form two distinct features of 1,000 m elevation.

·         The Biligiri Rangan Hills in Karnataka (at its border with Tamil Nadu) attain a height of 1,279 m.

·         Further south, the Eastern Ghats merge with the Western Ghats.

·         In the south, the Eastern Ghats are also referred to as Purva Ghat, Mahendra Parvatam, or Kizahakku Thodarchi Malai.

·         Compared to the Western Ghats, they are much older.

• They receive less rainfall than the Western Ghats since they are parallel to the Bay of Bengal monsoon. 

·         Geologically they are Precambrian fold mountains and the younger contemporary to Aravalli.

·         Presently they are highly dissected, fragmented and appear as hills of denudation running roughly along the eastern coast

·         Average Elevation – 150-300m (Very low)

·         They are made of different rock systems.

·         Khondelite series is the major rock system, found in the central part of AP, Orissa.

·         Southern Part in TN has Granitic Gneiss.

·         Peninsular rivers have carved out wide U shaped valleys. Thus, these mountains are scattered.

·         In TN, they are called Shevaroy Hills, Javadi Hills.

·         In AP, they are caled Palkonda range, Vellikonda range and Nalamallai hills

·         It is called Northern Circars b/w Godavari and Mahanadi basin, which are the highest part of the Eastern Ghats.

·         In Orissa, the highest point is Mahendragiri in Ganjam District.

·         These mountains are hardly watershed, thus no rivers except R.Indravati emerge from the Eastern Ghats.

States and Union Territories under the Eastern Ghats

·         The Eastern Ghats span an area of around 75,000 square kilometres as they cross the Coromandal between latitudes of 11° 30′ and 22° N and longitudes of 76° 50′ to 86° 30′ E.

·         boundary.

·         The Bastar, Telangana, and Karnataka plateaus’ tips, as well as the Tamil Nadu uplands, are located to the west.

·         Its eastern portion is constrained by the Eastern Coastal area.

·         The Eastern Ghats span southern Tamil Nadu, passing through sections of Karnataka, from northern Odisha through Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Mountains in the Eastern Ghats

·         The tallest mountain in the Eastern Ghats is Jindhagada, located near Araku, Andhra Pradesh.

·         Southwest, the hills become gentler as the Godavari River cuts through a gorge that is 65 kilometres (40 miles) long.

·         The Eastern Ghats can be seen as a collection of low ranges and hills, including the Erramala, Nallamala, Velikonda, and Palkonda, further southwest, beyond the Krishna River.

·         The Eastern Ghats continue as the Javadi and Shevaroy hills to the southwest of Chennai (Madras), where they converge with the Western Ghats.

·         Due to fractured hills, the Eastern Ghats’ altitude is uneven from a topographic perspective. The typical altitude is 600 m. (2000 ft).

Rivers flowing through the Eastern Ghats

·         The Eastern Ghats are intervein by major rivers like the Godavari, Krishna and Pennar.

·         A number of small rivers rise in the Eastern Ghats and debit into the Bay of Bengal.

·         Three major lakes present are Chilka, Kolleru and Pulicat lakes.

The climate of Eastern Ghats

·         Red, Black, Laterite, and Alluvial soils are the most common types of soil in the Eastern Ghats.

·         The region’s mean annual temperature ranges from a low of 14.5 °C to a high of 36.5 °C.

·         The tropical monsoon climate can be seen in the Eastern Ghats. Both the South-West and the North-East retreating monsoons bring rain to the area.

·         In the Northern Ghats, the mean annual rainfall distribution exceeds 1500 mm. In and surrounding the Nallamalai highlands, it progressively drops to 1000 mm. Along the East Coast’s Coastal plain, rainfall also tops 1000 mm.

Protected Areas in the mountain’s region

·         Some major protected areas are Simlipal, Coringa, Satyamangalam, Sri Lankamalleswara wildlife sanctuaries and Satkosia Tiger reserve.

·         The important ecoregions consist of Eastern Highlands moist deciduous forests, East Deccan dry evergreen forests, Deccan thorn scrub forests, Shrub lands and South Deccan Plateau dry deciduous forests.

Biological diversity in the Eastern Ghats

·         Along its length on India’s East Coast, from south to north, this region comprises various ecoregions.

·         Although the Eastern Ghats’ biospheres are not as well-known as the Western Ghats, they are still significant because of their abundant forests, perennial and semi-perennial streams, and other natural resources.

·         The forests include tropical dry scrub forests, dry savannah forests, semi-evergreen forests, and dry evergreen forests, among others.

·         Here you may find valuable trees including Eetti, Mahagony, Semmaram, Vengai, Pala, and Rosewood.

·         2,500 flowering plants live in the range, protecting 13% of all flowering plants in India. Additionally, they serve as the homes for various bird, reptile, and insect species.

Biodiversity Crisis of Eastern Ghats

·         Intensive agriculture:  In these hills, large-scale monocultures of rice, coffee, tea, and orchards are being grown, which is weakening the delicate ecosystem and removing natural plants.

•                   Commercial activities:  The natural topography of the Eastern Ghats is being dangerously impacted by large-scale mineral exploration for bauxite and iron ores, their transportation, and the transmission of  power lines. For instance: Forests have been indiscriminately destroyed as a result of the massive quantities of bauxite and magnesite ore that have been removed from the Kolli Hills and Servarayan Hills.

  ·         Over-exploitation:  The over-exploitation of forests by plant-based industries, such as plywood, paper, and pulp-making facilities, illegal firewood collection, illegal grazing, and illegal tree cutting, is also contributing to their degradation. Denudation of hilltops is occurring on a large scale as a result of the Chenchu tribes’ nomadic lifestyle in search of arable land.

  ·         Logging:  Trees like the fragrant and priceless sandal and rosewood have been indiscriminately cut down and illegally removed by taking advantage of gaps in conservation laws and other government regulations.

  ·         Invasive species:  The number of species in the Eastern Ghats has decreased as a result of the invasion of alien species like Lantana Camara, which compete with native plants for nutrients and space.

  ·         Forest fires:  The ghats’ deciduous woodlands are particularly prone to forest fires. Large fires are destroying the landscape more frequently due to rare precipitation. Fire-cleared areas are further eroded by wind or become overrun by alien species.

  ·         Climate change:  By increasing the average annual temperature and the microclimate of flora to levels unfavourable for their physiological activity, delayed and infrequent monsoons and frequent forest fires have reduced the quality of biodiversity.

  CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE PDF