School series 40

 The Western Ghats — India’s Ancient Green Mountains.

The Western Ghats are very different from the Himalayas.

They do not have the drama of enormous snow peaks. Instead, they are old, weathered, deeply forested mountains, running almost continuously along India’s western side from Gujarat to Tamil Nadu.

And perhaps their greatest wonder is that they quietly control so much of India’s life.

A mountain range older than the Himalayas

The Western Ghats are among the world's ancient mountain systems. They rise steeply from the western coastal plains and run for roughly 1,600 kilometres through Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Their highest point is Anamudi in Kerala, about 2,695 metres — modest compared with the Himalayas, but magnificent in its own setting.

The range changes character as it travels south.

In Maharashtra, we know it as the Sahyadris — rugged escarpments, cliffs, plateaus and magnificent monsoon landscapes.

In Karnataka come the thick forests and grasslands of places such as Kudremukh, Coorg and the Brahmagiri ranges.

Farther south, the Nilgiris, Anamalais and Agasthyamalai ranges create an extraordinary mountainous landscape. Album in below link.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZboWQFnD5WDKKugFA

The mountains that make the monsoon

This is one of the Western Ghats' greatest invisible gifts.

Moisture-laden winds from the Arabian Sea strike the mountains and are forced upward. The air cools, clouds form and enormous quantities of rain fall on the western slopes.

That is why places such as the Konkan, Goa, coastal Karnataka and Kerala can be extraordinarily wet.

Cross the mountains, however, and the landscape can change dramatically.

The same mountain wall that gives Kerala its lush greenery also contributes to the relatively drier conditions of the Deccan interior.

So these mountains are not merely scenery.

They help decide where the rain falls.

A forest full of things found nowhere else

The Western Ghats are one of the world's great biodiversity hotspots.

There are plants and animals here found nowhere else on Earth.

The lion-tailed macaque, Nilgiri tahr, Malabar giant squirrel, and numerous species of frogs, birds, orchids and trees belong to this extraordinary biological world.

The mountains are particularly famous for amphibians. New frogs and other species continue to be discovered in the forests.

It is almost as though an ancient biological experiment has been continuing quietly in these mountains for millions of years.

And then — the shola forests

One of the most beautiful sights of the higher Western Ghats is the strange partnership between grassland and forest.

Patches of evergreen shola forest occupy sheltered valleys, while rolling grasslands cover the surrounding high ground.

From a distance they look like green velvet folded across the mountains.

These landscapes occur especially in the Nilgiris, Anamalais and high ranges of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

The mountains of coffee, spices and tea

The Western Ghats also enter our everyday lives.

Cardamom, pepper, coffee and tea thrive in different parts of these mountains.

Coorg's coffee plantations, Wayanad's forests, Munnar's tea-covered slopes and the spice-growing regions of Kerala all owe something to the special climate created by the Ghats.

It is fascinating to think that the morning cup of coffee or tea can have its origins in these ancient mountains.

Mountains filled with history

The Sahyadris also became natural fortresses.

Shivaji Maharaj and the Marathas understood the mountains extraordinarily well. Forts such as Raigad, Rajgad and Sinhagad were built into the landscape itself.

Steep cliffs, narrow passes, hidden valleys and forested slopes became part of a remarkable mountain strategy.

The Western Ghats therefore hold not only forests and wildlife but layers of human history.

Sacred mountains

The Ghats are filled with sacred landscapes — Sabarimala, Kollur, Sringeri, Kukke Subrahmanya, Talakaveri, Agasthyamalai and countless smaller shrines, sacred groves and temple forests.

Here the mountain is not merely beautiful.

It is sacred, protective and alive.

Perhaps the best way to explore the Western Ghats

Sahyadris of Maharashtra — forts, cliffs, monsoon and plateaus

Goa & Karnataka Ghats — forests, waterfalls and wildlife

Coorg & Brahmagiri — coffee, forests and sacred landscapes

Nilgiris — shola forests, grasslands and Toda culture

Anamalais & Munnar — tea, high mountains and wildlife

Periyar & Cardamom Hills — forests, elephants and spices

Agasthyamalai — one of the most ancient and biologically remarkable corners of the Ghats