Western Ghats

Western Ghats has been in news because of Gadgil Committee report controversy.

• Entire tract of hills from the Tapi to Kanyakumari is called Western Ghats.
• Length =approx. 1500km and Area= approx. 1.6 lakh sq.kms
• About 30% of the area of the Western Ghats Region is under forests.

SIX States	Three (important) Passes
Gujarat (portions of Dang Forests). Maharashtra Karnataka Goa Kerala Tamilnadu	Thalghat Bhorghat Palghat

Administrative Regions

(no need to mugup table, but if you’re from any of these districts, be more prepared for “profile based” interview questions on Western Ghats).

Gujarat	Maharashtra	Karnataka	Kerala	TN
The Dangs	Ahmednagar	Belgaum	Idukki	Coimbatore
Navsari	Kolhapur	Chamrajnagar	Kannur	Dindugal
Valsad	Nandurbar	Chikmagalur	Kasaragod	Erode
	Nashik	Dakshin Kannad	Kollam	Kanyakumari
	Pune	Davanagere	Kottayam	Nilgiris
	Raigarh	Hassan	Kozhikode	Tirunelveli
	Ratnagiri	Kodagu	Malappuram	Tiruppur
	Satara	Mysore	Palakkad	Theni
	Sindhudurg	Shimoga	Pattanamtitta	Virudunagar
	Thane	Udupi	Thiruvananthapuram
		Uttar Kannada	Thrissur
			Wayanad

+ UT- Diu Daman (Silvassa region)

Western vs Eastern Ghats

Western	Eastern
Almost Continuous hills	Discontinuous hills (thanks to River deltas)
avg. height : 1500 to 2000 m	lower: 500-700 m
Highest peak: Anai Mudi (Kerala)	Dewodi Munda (Odisha) (as per Majid Hussein). Update: Highest peak in Eastern ghat is Jindhagada peak Andhra- it is few meters taller than Dewodi Munda.
Fast flowing rivers, donot form delta	Long broad rivers, form delta.
Narmada-Tapi	Krishna, Kaveri, Godawai (these origin from Western Ghats though) and Mahanadi
Flow into Arabian sea.	Into Bay of Bengal.

• Land between Western and Eastern Ghats=Deccan plateau.
• Nilgiri hills connect Western and Eastern Ghats.

Western Ghat: Forest

Western Slope	Eastern Slope
Rainfall: 200cm	70-200cm
Tropical Evergreen+ Semi Evergreen.	Moist Deciduous (also known as Monsoon forest)
There is no definite time for trees to shade leaves. Hence the jungle appears green throughout the year.	Trees shed leaves during dry season.
Rosewood, Mahogony Ebony Aini Cedar Hollywood ock Kail	Teak Sal Shisham Mahua Sandalwood Mahua

Western Ghats: Rivers

• Three main rivers of South India= Krishna, Godavari and Kaveri. They originate from Western Ghats.
• Traditionally these water resources were used to irrigate the valleys for paddy and arecanut cultivation.
• But later, construction of major river valley projects =irrigation + power generation.
• The steep slopes to the western Ghats = ideal for constructing dams and hydel power generation.
• In recent years construction of resorts and hill stations started around lakes and rivers. E.g. Amba Valley, Lavasa.
• Rivers flowing from the Western Ghats drain almost 40% of land in India.
• Roughly 250 million people depend on these rivers .
• From Western Ghats, rivers originate and flow in both directions: West and East.

West Flowing Rivers

	Narmada	Tapi
Origin (both MP)	Amarkantak hills	Satpura Ranges.
Length	Longer	Shorter
States covered	Guj, MP	Guj, MP, Mah.
Other names	Reva	Handmaid of Narmada.

• Coastal plains between Western Ghats and the Arabian sea are very narrow. Hence, these coastal rivers are short (compared to East flowing rivers)

East Flowing rivers- they drain in Bay of Bengal

	Godavari	Krishna	Kaveri
Origin	Nasik, Mah.	Mahabaleshwar	Brahmagiri Range
Length (km)	1500	1400	750
Water Basin covers	Mah, MP, Odi, AP*	Mah, Karn, AP	Karn, Ker, TN
Other names	Dakshin Ganga/Vridha Ganga		Ganga of South
Misc.notes			Sivasamudram water falls.
Tributaries	Manjra Wainganga Penganga	Tungabhadra Koyana Ghatprabha Musi Bhima	Amravati, Bhavani, Hemavati Kabini.
Type of Delta?	Lobate	Arcuate	Quadrilateral

• *NCERT Class 9 Geography: Chapter 3 page 21.
• Every once in a while, UPSC has a nasty habit of asking MCQ question from “delta-type” (Lobate, Arculate etc.) so do mug it up hahaha.
• Mahanadi also drains in Bay of Bengal but it comes from Chattisgarh=not part of Western Ghats.

Western Ghats- Other names

Maharashtra	Sahyadri
Karnataka	Nilgiri hills
Tamil Nadu	Same as above
Kerala	Anaimalai + Cardamom hills.

Geologically, the Western Ghats is subdivided into three parts

1. Surat to Goa
2. Goa to Nilgiris
3. South of Palghat Gap

Agriculture in Western Ghats

Region	Cultivation of
Valleys	Paddy
Hill slops	Earlier slash and burn type agriculture. Nowadays Terrace farming. Millets and legumes. arecanut
Coastal areas	coconut, mango, jackfruit

Plantation crops

Introduced by Europeans in Western Ghats	Native to Western Ghats
Tea Coffee Rubber Tapioca Potato	Pepper Cardamom

Forest produce

• Pepper, Cardamom,Honey,Wax, Myrobalan (Small Fruit),
• Bamboos + Reeds = For Basket Weaving
• 1980 onwards = explosion of forest-based industries such as paper, plywood, polyfibres, matchwood, tanning etc.

Western Ghats: Biodiversity

• The Western Ghats is one of the Biodiversity hotspots of the country.
• The wild relatives pepper, cardamom, mango, jackfruit and plantain=found here.
• Thousands of endemic* species of flowering plants, insects, trees, fishes, butterflies, dragonflies, mollusks (land snails) present.

*What is Endemic Species?

• Any species which is exclusively confined to a particular geographical area and it is found nowhere else in the world.

Nasikabactrachus sahyadrensis

• Recently discovered frog species in Western Ghats.
• It proves that Western Ghat was once part of ancient Gondwana region.

Western Ghat: Notable wildlife

• Tiger
• Elephant
• The Indian Bison
• Lion-Tailed Macaque
• Wynad Laughing Thrush (Songbirds)
• Travancore Tortoise
• Uropeltid Snakes
• Several Species Of Legless Amphibians.