Highlands

The Central Highlands comprise of three main plateaus — the Malwa Plateau in the west, the Deccan Plateau in the south (covering most of the Indian peninsula) and the Chota Nagpur Plateau in the east.

•    The Malwa Plateau

 This region is stretched across Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. Average height of plateau is 500 meters; most of the region is drained by Chambal River and its tributaries in north while western region is drained by Mahi River.

•    The Deccan Plateau

This region of Deccan Plateau is large triangular shape plateau which is surrounded by the Vindhyas to the north and flanked by the Eastern and Western Ghats. The region is stretched to 1.9 million km² (735,000 mile²).

Average height of the plateau is 2,000 feet (600 m) above sea level with slopes from 3,000 feet (900 m) in the west to 1,500 feet (450 m) in the east, originating several penisular rivers namely the Godavari, the Krishna, the Kaveri and the Narmada, which drain into the Bay of Bengal.

The region is of semi arid nature showing thorn shrub forest scattered with small regions of deciduous broadleaf forest. Summers are comparatively hotter while winters are mild.

•    The Chota Nagpur

The region mainly covers the eastern part of India, mainly the states of Jharkhand and adjacent parts of Orissa, Bihar and Chhattisgarh. The eco region of Chota Nagpur is stretched up to the area of 65,000 km² and encompasses three smaller plateaus — the Ranchi, Hazaribagh, and Kodarma plateaus among which the Ranchi plateau is the largest with an average elevation of 700 m.

The region gets good amount of rainfall and is thickly forested by dry deciduous types. The area also marks the vast metal ore and coal reserves. The natural vegetation in most of the peninsula is xeric scrub types.

The Kutch region in Gujarat and Koyna in Maharashtra in the western part of the India are classified as a Zone IV region (high risk) for earthquakes. Bhuj city of Kutch faced 2001 Gujarat earthquake while Latur of koyna faced 1993 Latur earthquake claming large number of human lives.


Other Physiographic Regions of India.


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