Western and eastern ghats of india on the map. Eastern Ghats. Man-made and natural attractions

Gathas of Zarathushtra. Translations and comments I have fused the ghost of truths into harmonious nonsense... Max Voloshin Preliminary prayers. Yasna 27.13–15 The Gathas are preceded by three holy prayers, or rather formulaic sayings. These standard prayer formulas are supposed to be said first, before

The mountains are covered with monsoon forests. There are also tea and coffee plantations on the mountain slopes.

The Eastern Ghats join the Western Ghats in the south at the Nilgiri Mountains.

Notes

1. Geographical encyclopedic dictionary: geographical names / Ed. A. F. Treshnikova. - 2nd ed., add. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1989. - P. 113. - 210,000 copies. - ISBN 5-85270-057-6.
2. Eastern Ghats // Dictionary of geographical names of foreign countries / resp. ed. A. M. Komkov. - 3rd ed., revised. and additional - M.: Nedra, 1986. - P. 126.
3. Eastern Ghats // Great Soviet Encyclopedia: [in 30 volumes] / ch. ed. A. M. Prokhorov. - 3rd ed. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978.
4. Eastern Ghats

Curly Aerides (lat. Aërides crispa) is a species from the genus Aërides of the Orchidaceae family.

The Gathas are part of the Avesta

Eastern Ghats - mountain system on the east coast of Hindustan

Western Ghats - mountain system on the western coast of Hindustan

India is located in South Asia, mostly on the Hindustan Peninsula. The coast of India, which is more than 7 thousand km long, is washed by the waters of the Indian Ocean - the Bay of Bengal from the southeast and the Arabian Sea from the southwest. The area of ​​India is 3 million 288 thousand km², according to this indicator the country ranks seventh in the world.

India is located north of the equator between 6°44" and 35°30" north latitude and 68°7" and 97°25" east longitude.

Mountain-forest belt is a natural high-altitude zone with a predominance of forest landscapes.

Mountain forests are forests located within mountain systems and individual mountain ranges with fluctuations in relative terrain heights of more than 100 m and an average surface slope from the foot to the top of mountain ranges or to the border of treeless spaces of more than 5°, regardless of the fact that individual sections of the slope may have a slope of less than 5°, as well as forests on mountain plateaus and plateaus, regardless of the slope of the terrain. Plateau forests, however, are not subject to altitudinal-zonal patterns, but to latitudinal-zonal ones, so their classification as mountain forests is debatable. The mountain-forest belt reaches its greatest development in equatorial latitudes. The mountain forest belt is distributed mainly in the mountains of fairly humid areas, but is also observed in the mountains of arid areas, where it often does not form a continuous strip, but is found in combination with meadows and steppes (mountain forest-steppe).

The mountain forest belt is often divided into a number of sub-belts, differing in the properties of the forests composing them. The presence of specific sub-belts depends on

continental climate and

other factors, including human activity.

Deccan, or Deccan Plateau (Hindi दक्खिन, Dakkhin; English Deccan Plateau, from Sanskrit दक्षिण dakshina - “southern”) is a plateau in India on the Hindustan Peninsula. It is located in the interior of the peninsula, bounded on the north by the Narmada River and on the south by the Kaveri River. Covers an area of ​​about 1 million km². The surface is mainly inclined towards the east, due to which most of the rivers flow towards the east and empty into the Bay of Bengal.

To the north of the plateau is the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Along the western edge of the plateau are the Western Ghats, which in the southern part fence off the Malabar coast, and along the eastern edge - the Eastern Ghats, which fence off the Coromandel coast from the plateau, respectively.

Jackfruit, or eve, or Indian breadfruit (lat. Artocarpus heterophyllus), is a woody plant, a species of the genus Artocarpus (Artocarpus) of the Mulberry family, a close relative of the breadfruit.

The Dravidians are peoples who inhabit mainly South India (only the Brahui remain in Pakistan) and speak Dravidian languages. Anthropologically, the Dravidians are so different from the rest of the population of India that many researchers identify them as a separate race - Dravidian, or South Indian - apparently the result of a mixture of the Indo-Mediterranean and Veddoid races.

The Dravidian peoples are the main creators of one of the oldest and most developed world civilizations - the Indus Valley Civilization, or Harappan civilization, in the culture and mythology of which Dravidian elements are quite clearly visible. It is assumed that during the period when this ancient civilization was already declining, as a result of a series of environmental disasters and a wave of Indo-Aryan (racially Caucasian) onslaught, the cities in the Indus basin were destroyed, and indigenous people, in particular the Dravidians, were forced out or migrated to the south of the Hindustan Peninsula.

The Dravidians include Telugus, or Andhras (44 million people according to 1967 estimates, currently more than 80 million people), Tamils ​​(~70 million people, partly also live on the island of Sri Lanka, in Malaysia, Myanmar and other countries of the South -East Asia), Malayali (more than 35 million people), Kannar (44 million people), Gonds (more than 4 million people), Tulu (about 1 million people), as well as a number of small peoples who have largely preserved their tribal way of life and live mainly in mountainous and forest areas: Oraons, Todas, Kota, Kurumba, Badaga, Baiga, etc.

The Telugu and Tamil peoples are the creators of two of India's largest film industries: Tollywood (Telugu language cinema) and Kollywood (Tamil language cinema), currently surpassing Bollywood (Hindi language cinema) in terms of film output.

The South Indian cities of Bangalore and Hyderabad are India's largest scientific and industrial centers. Hyderabad vies with Bangalore to be called India's Silicon Valley.

Western Ghats (Hindi पश्चिमी घाट), Sahyadri (Hindi सह्याद्रि) - a mountain range in the west of Hindustan. They run north to south along the western edge of the Deccan Plateau, separating the plateau from the narrow coastal plain along the Arabian Sea. The mountain range begins near the border of Gujarat and Maharashtra, south of the Tapti River, stretches for about 1,600 km through the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, ending at Kanyakumari, the southern tip of Hindustan. About 60% of the Western Ghats are located in Karnataka.

The mountains occupy 60,000 km², the average height is 1200 m, the highest point is Anai Mudi (2695 m).

India (Hindi भारत Bhārat, English. India), official name - Republic of India (Hindi भारत गणराज्य Bhārat Gaṇarājya, English. Republic of India) is a state in South Asia. Population - 180,000,000 people (December 22, 2017), territory - 3,287,263 km², by both of these indicators it is the largest country in South Asia. It ranks second in the world in terms of population and seventh in territory. The capital is New Delhi. The official languages ​​are Hindi and English.

Federal state, parliamentary republic. Prime Minister - Narendra Modi, President - Ram Nath Kovind. It is divided into 29 states and 7 union territories.

India borders Pakistan in the west, China, Nepal and Bhutan in the northeast, and Bangladesh and Myanmar in the east. India also shares maritime borders with the Maldives in the southwest, Sri Lanka in the south and Indonesia in the southeast. The disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with Afghanistan.

The Indian subcontinent is home to the ancient Indus civilization. For most of its history, India was the center of important trade routes and was famous for its wealth and high culture. Religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism originated in India. In the first millennium AD, Christianity and Islam also came to the Indian subcontinent, having a significant influence on the development of the diverse culture of the region. In the 18th - first half of the 20th centuries, India was gradually colonized by the British Empire. In 1947, after many years of struggle, the country gained independence. By the end of the 20th century, India achieved great success in economic and military development; the country's economy became one of the fastest growing in the world. Despite this, a significant part of the population continues to live below the poverty line. High levels of corruption and a backward health care system are also pressing problems.

India is a potential superpower, has nuclear weapons. She is included in such international organizations, like the UN, G20, WTO, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, Commonwealth of Nations, as well as BRICS and SCO.

Hindustan (Hindi हिन्दुस्तान Hindustān, Urdu ہندوستان‎ Hindostān from Persian Hindū‎ - Indus + -stān) is a peninsula in southern Asia. Area approx. 2 million km². The northern border is conventionally drawn from the Indus delta to the Ganges delta. Sometimes all the plateaus and mountains south of the Indo-Gangetic Plain are also referred to as Hindustan. The peninsula contains a large part of India, parts of Pakistan and Bangladesh.

From the west it is washed by the waters of the Arabian Sea, from the east by the Bay of Bengal. To the southeast of the tip of the peninsula is the large island of Sri Lanka. Hindustan is the southern part of the Indian subcontinent, located on the Indian tectonic plate.

Along the coastline there is a narrow strip of plains. Above them rise the Western and Eastern Ghats, framing the Deccan Plateau. The highest point is Mount Anai-mudi, whose height is 2698 meters. There are also large deposits of coal, manganese, iron and copper ores, mica, bauxite and precious stones. The southernmost point of the peninsula is Cape Comorin.

Coromandel Coast - the eastern coast of the Hindustan Peninsula south of the Krishna River delta to Cape Comorin. The coast is washed by the Bay of Bengal of the Indian Ocean, has a length of about 700 km and a width of 80-100 km. It is a strip of hilly plains, turning into the Eastern Ghats in the west.

Along the coast there are large sandy beaches and spits. The coast is low, indented by deltas of several large rivers, including Kaveri, Palar, Penner and Krishna, which form deltas with an area of ​​up to 10 thousand km². The rivers originate on the Deccan Plateau and, flowing from the Eastern Ghats, form fertile alluvial plains.

Currently, the Coromandel Coast is located in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, as well as in the union territory of Puducherry. There are large port cities on the coast - Chennai (Madras), Cuddalore, Tranquebar (Tharangambadi), Nagapatnam and others.

The Western Ghats is one of those rare mountainous regions on earth where, on the edge of the Deccan plateau, which falls into the Arabian Sea, a special world of wildlife has been preserved, nowhere else found.

ON THE WESTERN CLIP OF HINDOSTAN

The Western Ghats are actually not quite mountains, but the edge of the Deccan Plateau, rising above the plains when 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 segment is called the Konkan, the central is the Canara, and the southern is the Malabar Coast.

The names of the mountains reflect not only their position on Hindustan, but also appearance: Ghats means "steps" in Sanskrit. Indeed, the western slope slopes down 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 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 Cauvery, and from east to west into the Arabian Sea - Karaman.

The Western Ghats play a decisive role in shaping the climate of the entire Hindustan Peninsula, preventing the advance 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 isolated 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.

FIVE THOUSAND MOUNTAIN FLOWERS

IN Western Ghats amazingly diverse fauna, many species of flora are 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 share 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 departure of the British, the plantations were preserved, and today India is the second country in the world in terms of tea production after.

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 har-za, 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 network of roads and plantations 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 most Big city Western Ghats - 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 Pa-Lakkad Passage 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.

ATTRACTIONS

Natural:

■ Bandipur and Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuaries.

■ Waterfalls and rapids of the Pikara River.

■ Wenlock Lowlands.

■ Mukurthi, Karimpuzha, Eravikulam and Silent Valley National Parks.

■ Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve.

■ Lakes Izumrudnoye, Porthi-mund and Avalanche.

■ Lakkom Falls.

Udagamandalam City (Ooty):

■ State Rose Garden.

■ John Sullivan's stone bungalow (1822).

■ St. Stephen's Church (1830).

■ Botanical Garden (1847).

■ Udagamandalam Lake.

■ Huts of the Toda people.

■ Ooty Railway (1908).

■ Deer Park.

Palakkad city:

■ Jain temple of Jainimedu Jain (XV century).

■ Brahmin monastery Kalpati (XV century).

■ Palakkad Fort (1766).

■ Malampuzha Dam (1955).

■ Imur Bhagawati Temple.

Pune city:

■ Raja Kelkar Museum.

■ Aga Khan Palace.

■Pataleshwar Temple.

■ The forts of Simha Gad, Rajgarh, Torna, Purander and Shivneri.

■ Shanvarva-da Palace (1736).

■ Parvati Temple.

■ In the state rose garden of the city of Udagamandalam there are more than 20 thousand varieties of roses, and in the Botanical Garden there is a petrified tree aged 20 million years.

■ Male muntjac deer mark their territory with secretions from their lacrimal glands.

■ Almost all of the Irula people suffer from respiratory diseases. This is caused by smoke from grass burned in the fields: this is how the Irula fight rats, which destroy up to a quarter of the grain harvest.

■ Sambar is the largest Indian deer, about one and a half meters tall at the withers, weighing more than three quintals and with antlers up to 130 cm long.

■ The name of Mount Ana-Mudi literally translated from Malayalam means “Elephant Mountain”, or “Elephant’s forehead”: its sloping peak really resembles the forehead of an elephant.

■ The spiny dormouse, a small rodent, gets its name from the needle-like fur on its back. It is sometimes called the pepper rat because of its predilection for the fruits of ripening peppers.

■ The traditional art form of the Western Ghats region is yakshagana, dance and dramatic performances with scenes from the ancient Indian epics “Mahabharata” and “Ramayana”, first mentioned back in 1105. Yakshagana is performed only by men.

■ Research conducted in 2014 in tropical forests The Western Ghats have made it possible to describe more than a dozen new species of “dancing frogs.” They are so named because of their unusual movements during the mating season: males “dance”, stretching their legs to the sides, attracting the attention of females.

■ There are rows of trees in the tea gardens of the Western Ghats. This is also tea; bushes turn into trees if they are not pruned. Tea trees are left for shade and moisture retention.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Location: South Asia, west of the Hindustan Peninsula.
Origin: tectonic.
Inland 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, Mapaya Lam, Tulu, Konkani.
Ethnic composition: Konkani, Tuluva, Mudugar, and Rula and Kurumbar tribes.
Religions: Hinduism (majority), Islam, Catholicism, animism.
Currency: 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

Area: 187,320 km2.
Length: 1600 km from north to south.
Width: up to 100 km from east to west.
Average altitude: 900 m.
Maximum altitude: Mount Ana Mudi (2695 m).
Other peaks: Mount Doddabetta (2637 m), Hecuba (2375 m), Kattadadu (2418 m), Kulkudi (2439 m).

CLIMATE

Subequatorial, monsoon.
Average January temperature: +25°C.
Average July temperature: +24°C.
Average annual precipitation: 2000-5000 mm, on the eastern slope - 600-700 mm.
Relative humidity: 70%.

ECONOMY

Industry: food (cheese-making, milk powder, chocolate, spices), metal products (needles), woodworking.
Hydroelectric power.
Wind power plants.
Agriculture: crop production (tea, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, pear, plum, strawberry).
Services: tourism, transport, trade.