Western Ghats. Map of Cape Gata in Russian Western and southwestern lands of ancient Rus' as part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Western Ghats is one of those rare on earth mountainous regions, where on the edge of the Deccan plateau, which breaks into the Arabian Sea, a special world of wildlife, found nowhere else, has been preserved.
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 western edge Deccan Plateau, which occupies almost the entire Hindustan Peninsula. From Indian Ocean The Western Ghats are separated 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 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 mountain landscape was the result of ancient tectonic activity, the “impact” of the tectonic plate of the Deccan Plateau on less elevated areas earth's crust. The process lasted for millions of years at different 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 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
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 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 change climate, 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.
■ small rodent The spiny dormouse gets its name from the needle-like hair on its back. It is sometimes called the pepper rat because of its predilection for the fruits of ripening peppers.
■ Traditional look arts of the Western Ghats region - 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 in the Western Ghats rainforest in 2014 identified more than a dozen new species of dancing frogs. They are so nicknamed because of their unusual movements. mating season: Males “dance” by 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, powdered milk, 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.
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 name of the mountains reflects not only their position in Hindustan, but also their appearance: Ghats in Sanskrit means “steps”. Indeed, the western slope of the mountain range is 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.
The Western Ghats play a 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 ancestors, poisonous snakes, and 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. They mainly engage in agriculture, growing 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 built at the end of the 19th century. 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 largest number of protected areas in India. The last remaining rare animal species in the country survive here: the lion-tailed macaque, the Indian leopard, the Nilgiri ibex (living on Mount Ana Mudi), sambar and muntjac deer, the spiny dormouse, the Nilgiri harza, and the 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
Location: South Asia, western Hindustan Peninsula.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
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 height: Mount Ana Mudi (2695 m).
Other peaks: Mount Doddabetta (2637 m), Hecuba (2375 m), Kattadadu (2418 m), Kulkudi (2439 m).
Climate and weather
Subequatorial, monsoon.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
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).
Service sector: tourism, transport, trade.
Attractions
■ Natural: Bandipur and Mudumalai reserves, waterfalls and rapids of the Pikara River, Wenlock lowlands, National parks Mukurthi, Karimpuzha, Eravikulam and Silent Valley, biosphere reserve Nilgiri, Emerald, Porthimund and Avalanche lakes, Lakkom waterfall.■ Udagamandalam city (Ooty): State Rose Garden, John Sullivan's stone bungalow (1822), St. Stephen's Church (1830), Botanical Garden (1847), Udagamandalam Lake, Toda huts, Railway Ooty (1908), Deer Park.
■ Palakkad city: Jain temple 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, Simha Gad, Rajgarh, Torna, Purander and Shivneri fortresses, Shanvarvada Palace (1736), Parvati Temple.
Curious facts
■ 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 - for 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 in the Western Ghats rainforest in 2014 identified 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.
The Western Ghats are a natural barrier to the movement of moisture-saturated air masses rushing to the Deccan Plateau from the Indian Ocean. Unable to overcome these mountains, the moisture settles here, and the interior regions of Hindustan receive literally drops. This is what nature decided, and the Indians themselves are philosophical about this: the gods know best how to manage water and life.
The Western Ghats is one of those rare mountain regions on earth where, on the edge of the Deccan plateau, which breaks 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 section is called the Konkan, the central section is the Canara, and the southern section is the Malabar Coast.
The name of the mountains reflects not only their position in Hindustan, but also their appearance: Ghats in Sanskrit means “steps”. Indeed, the western slope of the mountain range is 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 into the Arabian Sea - Karaman.
The Western Ghats play a 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.
FIVE THOUSAND MOUNTAIN FLOWERS
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 ancestors, poisonous snakes, and 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. They mainly engage in agriculture, growing 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 built at the end of the 19th century. 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 largest number of protected areas in India. The last remaining rare animal species in the country survive here: the lion-tailed macaque, the Indian leopard, the Nilgiri tahr goat (living on Mount Ana Mudi), sambar and muntjac deer, the spiny dormouse, the Nilgiri har-za, and the 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.
FUN FACTS
■ 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.
■ 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 - for 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 in the Western Ghats rainforest in 2014 identified 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.
ATTRACTIONS
■ Natural: Bandipur and Mudumalai reserves, waterfalls and rapids of the Pikara River, Wenlock lowlands, Mukurthi, Karimpuzha, Eravikulam and Silent Valley national parks, Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, Emerald, Porthi Mund and Avalanche lakes, Lakkom Falls.
■Udagamandalam City (Ooty): state rose garden, John Sullivan's stone bungalow (1822), church
St. Stephen's (1830), Botanical Garden (1847), Udagamandalam Lake, Toda huts, Ooty Railway (1908), Deer Park.
■ Palakkad city: Jainimedu Jain temple (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, Simha-Gad, Rajgarh, Torna, Purander and Shivneri fortresses, Shanvarva-da Palace (1736), Parvati Temple.
Western Ghats, Sahyadri, a mountain range in India, the western elevated edge of the Hindustan peninsula. Length about 1800 km, height up to 2698 m(Anaimudi city). The western slope is a steep cliff of the Deccan plateau, falling in steps towards Arabian Sea, eastern - gently sloping plains, descending towards the interior regions of the Hindustan Peninsula. The western regions are separated by transverse tectonic valleys that serve as routes of communication between the Malabar coast and the Deccan Plateau. South part composed mainly of gneisses and charnockites, forming separate massifs with sharp, irregular outlines of peaks (Nilgiri, Anaimalai, Palni, Cardamom Mountains); the northern part is predominantly basalts, forming flat-topped stepped hills. The climate is subequatorial, monsoon. The annual precipitation on the windward slopes is from 2 to 5 thousand. mm, on leeward - 600-700 mm. On the western slopes below and in the north there are mixed deciduous-evergreen forests, in the south there are evergreen moist forests rainforests(largely mixed); on the eastern slopes there are dry savannas with candelabra-shaped spurges, acacias, and deleb palms.
L. I. Kurakova.
Great Soviet Encyclopedia M.: " Soviet encyclopedia", 1969-1978
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). During major eruptions, the Deccan Plateau was formed - a wide basalt layer 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
Right at the altar, a handsome young knight tried to crush the skull of an elderly man... The man did not die, his skull did not give in. The young knight calmly and methodically continued to beat until the man finally last time did not twitch and did not calm down - his thick skull, unable to bear it, split...The young mother, gripped by horror, held out the child in prayer - a second later, two even halves remained in her hands...
A little curly girl, crying out of fright, gave the knight her doll - her most precious treasure... The doll's head easily flew off, and after it the head of the owner rolled like a ball on the floor...
Unable to bear it any longer, sobbing bitterly, I fell to my knees... Were these PEOPLE?! WHAT could you call a person who committed such evil?!
I didn’t want to watch it any further!.. I had no more strength left... But the North mercilessly continued to show some cities, with churches burning in them... These cities were completely empty, not counting the thousands of corpses thrown right on streets, and spilled rivers of human blood, drowning in which wolves feasted... Horror and pain shackled me, not allowing me to breathe even for a minute. Not allowing you to move...
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 the leader of the crusaders, Simon de Montfort, enraged by unsuccessful attempts, 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 mine 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...