The Central Highlands and Southern plateaus

The Central Highlands and Southern plateaus :
The highlands comprise mainly of three plateaus-the Malwa Plateau in the west, the Chhota Nagpur Plateau in the east and the Deccan Plateau in the south covering most of the Indian peninsula.

The Malwa Plateau is flanked on the north-west by the Aravalli ranges. It spreads across Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. The average elevation of the Malwa Plateau is 500 metres, and the landscape generally slopes towards the north. Most of the region is drained by the Chambal and its tributaries and the Mahi. The Chhota Nagpur Plateau situated in eastern India covers much of Jharkhand and adjacent parts of Odisha, Bihar and Chhattisgarh. It is made up of three smaller plateaus-the Ranchi, Hazaribagh and Kodarma plateaus. The plateau has reserves of coal, mica and metal ores of iron and manganese.

The Deccan Plateau is a large triangular plateau, bounded by the Vindhyas to the north and flanked by the Eastern and Western Ghats. The Deccan covers a total area of 1.9 million sq km. It is mostly flat, with elevations ranging from 300 to 600 m. It slope gently from west to east and gives rise to several peninsular rivers such as the Mahanadi, the Godavari, the Krishna and the Kaveri which drain into the Bay of Bengal, and the Narmada and Tapi that flow into the Arabian sea.

The plateau is the broadest in the north and is covered by lava flows. It has black soil which is good for cotton cultivation. The plateau spreads across the whole of Maharashtra, parts of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. There are natural harbours and lagoons in Mumbai and Marmagoa, and backwaters in Kerala. The rivers of the Deccan Plateau are not perennial and depend on the monsoon rains for water.

They are less suitable for irrigation and are not easily navigable

India's Island Chains :

Off the cost of the land lie a string of  islands – the Lakshadweep in the Arabian Sea and the Andaman and Nicobar Island in the Bay of Bengal.

Lakshadweep meaning a  'hundred thousand island '  is a group of 36 coral islands in the Arabian Sea, 200 to 440 km off the west coast of Kerala. The islands with the total land area of 32 sq km form the smallest union territory of India. Ten of the islands are inhabited.

The Andaman and Nicobar archipelago is a string of  572 islands lying in the Bay of Bengal. 1,190 km from Chennai. Andaman and Nicobar Islands are separated by a sea known as the Ten Degree Channel. The sea coincides with the 10° N  latitude, hence the name. These island are the remnant of submerged mountain range extending from the Arakan Mountains of Myanmar continuing farther to the island of Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. Only 36 of these island are inhabited, out which 24 are in Andaman and 12 in Nicobar.