Chapter 26
The Western Ghat: The Great Escarpment of India
Vishwas S. Kale
Abstract The Western Ghat Escarpment is one of
the classic examples of passive margin great escarp-
ments in the world. The Western Ghat zone is an area
of spectacular scenery, rugged terrain, deep valleys,
impressive waterfalls, and dense forest teeming with
wildlife. The ~1-km high wall is an assemblage of
valley heads and spurs. Other associated landforms are
plateau outliers, deep gorges, beheaded plateau valleys,
and laterite plateaux or tablelands. There are many
instances of stream piracy in the Ghat zone. The Ghat is
the fountainhead of many large, east-flowing rivers and
numerous short, swift, coastward-flowing rivers. Most
workers believe that the Western Ghat Escarpment
was initiated as a rifted margin at the time of eruption
of the Deccan basalts in late Cretaceous. Although it
is generally agreed that the escarpment has receded
inland, there are differences of opinion about the mode
and rate of recession.
Keywords Beheaded valleys • Deccan basalts • gorges
• great escarpment • monsoon • outliers • scarp
recession • Western Ghat
26.1 Introduction
Great escarpments are fundamental topographic fea-
tures of many passive continental margins or Atlantic-
type margins, which are trailing edges of tectonic
plates. Escarpments are precipitous hillslopes of sub-
stantial length. Typical great escarpments occur in
South Africa (Drakensberg), southeastern Australia,
eastern Brazil (Serra do Mar), Namibia, and India
(Western Ghat). All but a few passive margin great
escarpments exhibit certain common characteristics
(Ollier 2004): (a) they are several hundreds or thousands
P. Migoń (ed.), Geomorphological Landscapes of the World,
DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-3055-9_26, © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010
of kilometers long and over a kilometer high, (b) they
show remarkable continuity and linearity despite struc-
tural variations, (c) they run roughly parallel to the
coast and separate a high inland plateau from a coastal
lowland or plain, and (d) they display erosional and
youthful characteristics.
One of the most spectacular great escarpments is
present along the western passive continental margin of
India (Fig. 26.1). This very prominent physiographic
feature runs almost parallel to the Arabian Sea coast
and is known as the Sahyadri (Sanskrit for “benevolent
mountain”) alias Western Ghat (ghat = broad flight of
steps leading to a river). In terms of size, stature, and
grandeur it is second only to the lofty Himalayan
Mountains in the Indian subcontinent. The Western
Ghat is a textbook example of a great escarpment
because it displays all the typical morphological fea-
tures of passive margin escarpments, especially in the
northern part, where it is developed in the Deccan flood
basalts (Fig. 26.2a). Not surprisingly, this gigantic land-
form has been the subject for exploration and research
for over a century (Gunnell and Radhakrishna 2001).
26.2 The Great Escarpment of India
Similar to other passive margins, the western coastal
margin of India displays three prominent landscape
features (Fig. 26.2c): an elevated inland plateau (the
Deccan Plateau), a long, coast-parallel, high-relief,
and seaward-facing escarpment (the Sahyadri or the
Western Ghat), and a dissected coastal lowland (known
as Konkan in the north and Malabar in the south).
Even a cursory glance at the physiographic map or
satellite image of south Asia would reveal two most
striking characteristics of the India’s great escarpment:
257
258
Fig. 26.1 Geographical setting of the Western Ghat. The
dashed line south of Mumbai represents approximately the
southern boundary of the Deccan basalt province. 1 – Anai
its remarkable linearity and extraordinary continuity.
The escarpment runs for over 1,600 km along the west-
ern margin but displays only marginal changes in its
configuration and morphology, despite significant lith-
ological and structural variations (Fig. 26.1). The topo-
graphic feature is cut across Cretaceous-Eocene
Deccan flood basalts in the north (roughly north of
16°N latitude) and the Pre-Cambrian gneisses, gran-
ites, and charnockites in the south.
The Ghat summit is not uniform in elevation, but is
featured by high peaks and gaps. The peaks attain their
greatest height in the southern segment. Some of the
important high peaks are: Anai Mudi (2,695 m), Doda
Betta (2,637 m), and Kalsubai (1,646 m) (Fig. 26.1).
The last is the highest peak in the Deccan basalt
V.S. Kale
Mudi peak (2,695 m), 2 – Doda Betta peak (2,637 m), 3 –
Kalsubai peak (1,646 m) (Image based on GTOPO30 DEM
data)
province (DBP) (Fig. 26.2b). Interestingly, these high
peaks are not coincident with the Ghat crest, but lie
slightly eastward of the scarp. Occasionally, laterite
plateaux or tablelands occur on the Ghat summit.
One of the best examples is the Mahabaleshwar
Plateau (Fig. 26.2b), which at ~1,400 m a.s.l. is a pop-
ular tourist destination during the hot Indian summer.
The “swales” or gaps (referred as the ghat; hence the
name Western Ghat) are often truncated valley heads
on the Ghat edge (Kale and Subbarao 2004). Some of
the major and well-known gaps are: the Palghat, Thal
Ghat, Malshej Ghat, and Bor Ghat (Figs. 26.1 and
26.2b). Palghat is the most prominent gap (~15 km wide)
in the Western Ghat Escarpment, where the elevation
drops below 200 m a.s.l. A good number of these gaps
26 The Western Ghat: The Great Escarpment of India 259

Fig. 26.2 (a) Geographical extent of the Deccan basalt province Ghat; 2 – Bor Ghat; (c) cross profile (E–W) across the western
(DBP); (b) shaded relief image of the western DBP. The 600-m margin in the DBP showing the three major topographic features
contour along the Ghat escarpment is shown by dark line. 1 – Thal (The image and the profile generated from SRTM-DEM data)

or passes used to be ancient trade routes, and even The orographic effect of the ~1-km high Western
today carry highways and railways, which connect the Ghat Escarpment is primarily responsible for dra-
coastal towns with the plateau towns. matic differences in monsoon precipitation (June to
260
September), and consequently in the natural vegeta-
tion and land use on either side of the scarp. The physi-
cal barrier intercepts the moisture-bearing southwest
monsoon winds. As a result, a zone of high rainfall
(2,000–6,000 mm) exists on the seaward-facing flank
and a zone of pronounced rainshadow effect (600–
1,000 mm) characterizes the leeward side. Due to large
topographic and climatic diversity, there is a steep
environmental gradient toward the east as well as
toward the west. Consequently, the Ghat zone (~25 km
belt around the scarp) is a home to countless varieties
of endemic species and has been recognized as one of
the world’s major terrestrial biodiversity hot spots.
The great wall of the Western Ghat is a shoulder-
type escarpment (Matmon et al. 2002) because the top
of the escarpment essentially coincides with the main
drainage divide of the Indian Peninsula. It is the foun-
tainhead of many large, east-flowing rivers and numer-
ous short, swift, coastward-flowing rivers. The principal
east-flowing rivers are the Godavari, the Krishna, and
the Kaveri (Fig. 26.1). These rivers together drain an
area of over half-a-million square kilometers. The rivers
originate within a few tens of kilometers from the
Arabian Sea, but prefer to travel for over 800–1,400 km
to debouch into the Bay of Bengal on the other side of
the peninsula.
Fig. 26.3 Western Ghat Escarpment in horizontally bedded Deccan basalt flows at Mahabaleshwar (see Fig. 26.2 for location)
(Reproduced from Kale and Subbarao 2004. With permission)
V.S. Kale
26.2.1 T
 he Scarp in the Deccan Basalt
Province
The great escarpment is remarkably straight and bold
in the basaltic terrane (Fig. 26.2b) unlike in the southern
Precambrian segment, where it loses its distinctiveness
to some extent and is more convoluted. Within the
DBP, the nearly 800-km long, imposing wall of the
Western Ghat lies about 40–120 km (average 60 km)
inland from the Arabian Sea coast and forms the western
edge of the northern Deccan Plateau (known as desh).
There is only one major embayment in this part, the
Malshej Ghat, where the escarpment has receded
significantly inland (Fig. 26.2b).
The Ghat zone is an area of spectacular scenery
(Fig. 26.3), rugged relief, sheer cliffs, deep valleys,
and dense forest. The height of the escarpment top in
the basaltic terrane significantly varies (~600–1,400 m
a.s.l.), but the average elevation is around 900 m. The
scarp face is remarkably steep and high, particularly to
the south of 20°N latitude. North of this latitude the
face has a stepped appearance (Fig. 26.2b). Topographic
analysis using data extracted from SRTM-DEM indi-
cates that the relative relief along the escarpment
ranges between ~200 and 1,100 m. The average slope
of the Western Ghat scarp is close to 19°, but in places,
26 The Western Ghat: The Great Escarpment of India
the scarp slopes exceed 30°. Due to the rugged terrain,
high altitude, cooler climate, and breathtaking views,
the Western Ghat zone is dotted with popular tourist
resorts, medieval forts, and ancient temples.
26.3 Escarpment-Related Landforms
The Western Ghat Escarpment takes many interesting
forms along its length. Although the escarpment sinu-
osity in the DBP is remarkably low (Kale and
Shejwalkar 2007), the seaward face is not like a high,
fortification wall, but exhibits an assemblage of valley
heads and offshoots or spurs (Fig. 26.4). The escarp-
ment is broken by deep, narrow notches developed by
the steeper, west-draining streams, separated by short,
sharp-ridged spurs (Fig. 26.3). Often a cataract is
located at the reentrant head. The length of the spurs or
offshoots seldom exceeds 5 km (Kale and Subbarao
2004). Other associated landforms are outliers, gorges,
and beheaded valleys.
Fig. 26.4 Forms of the Great Escarpment of India in the Deccan basalt province. The photograph shows short razor-edged
offshoots or spurs separated by narrow reentrants (Reproduced from Kale and Subbarao 2004. With permission)
261
26.3.1 Plateau Outliers
Plateau outliers are prominent escarpment-related
features and are a typical expression of the escarpment
recession. Outliers are detached masses of the main
plateau and are separated from the main escarpment
face by narrow deep valleys. During the process of
retreat of an escarpment, the promontories are often
converted into outliers due to headward erosion by
tributary streams. There are quite a few examples of
outliers along the Western Ghat Escarpment (Dikshit
1981). Some of the outliers have been completely
detached from the main plateau (Deccan Plateau), but
some are still partly attached. Matheran (Fig. 26.2b) is
one such completely detached outlier, which is one of
the most popular tourist hill stations (resorts) near
Mumbai (formerly Bombay). Patches of laterite occur
on the summit at Matheran. Laterite is a common
weathering product in tropical areas, which is enriched
in iron and forms by intensive and prolonged weather-
ing of the underlying rocks. The indurated or hardened
iron-rich crust (also called duricrust) protects the
262
underlying rocks from erosion, and gives rises to the
characteristic plateau and mesa topography, as exhibited
at Mahabaleshwar-Panchgani.
26.3.2 Beheaded Plateau Valleys
Another remarkable and conspicuous feature of the
Western Ghat scarp is the occurrence of unusually wide
(~1–6 km) gaps right on the top of the escarpment.
These are beheaded plateau valleys, truncated not by
faulting or river capture, but by the eastward recession
of the Western Ghat scarp (Radhakrishna 1993). As the
escarpment migrates inland, the headwaters of the east-
flowing plateau rivers are consumed leading to the
development of beheaded valleys (Kale and Subbarao
2004). In most cases, the rivers occupying the beheaded
valleys become underfit because of loss of headwater
area. Many plateau rivers in the DBP show evidence of
such beheading and underfit nature. The most impres-
sive example is seen at Malshej Ghat (Fig. 26.5).
Fig. 26.5 Beheaded valley of the Pushpavati River at Malshej Ghat. The sharp top-edge of the escarpment is clearly seen in the
foreground. See Fig 26.2b for location of Malshej Ghat (Reproduced from Deodhar and Kale 1998. With permission)
V.S. Kale
26.3.3 Gorges and Stream Piracy
Deep gorges, with cataracts at the head, abound in the
Western Ghat zone. Gorges are narrow, deep valleys
with steep walls. They occur where valley deepening
by vertical erosion significantly outpaces valley wid-
ening. Many of the high-gradient, seaward-draining
rivers have developed such gorges by incision and
headward retreat into the escarpment front. In general,
the gorges are longer in the southern Pre-Cambrian
segment, where some of the coastal rivers have pene-
trated far into the plateau. Along the Ghat scarp, gorges
are one of the fundamental geomorphic landforms
associated with coastal streams that have captured and
gained more drainage area over the plateau by stream
piracy.
The phenomenon of stream piracy is common in the
Western Ghat zone due to the higher erosional poten-
tial of the rivers flowing down the escarpment face.
There are many examples of elbow bends; one of the
most commonly cited types of geomorphic evidence of
stream piracy. Numerous instances of river captures
26 The Western Ghat: The Great Escarpment of India
can be found all along the Western Ghat edge, particularly
in the southern Pre-Cambrian terrane. One of the clas-
sical examples is that of the Sharavati River near
Gersoppa (14.22°N and 74.81°E). It displays all the
associated features – barbed drainage pattern, an
elbow, a narrow steep gorge, and a major waterfall at
the head of the gorge (Radhakrishna 1993). The 253-m
waterfall, known as the Gersoppa or Jog Falls, is the
highest waterfall in India in terms of its vertical drop.
26.4 F
 ormation of the Western Ghat
Escarpment
The exact mode of origin of the Western Ghat
Escarpment has not yet been fully understood and
explained. The scarp was previously thought to be an
enormous, abandoned sea cliff by some and a gigantic
fault scarp by others (Dikshit 1981; Gunnell and
Radhakrishna 2001). In recent years, due to its remark-
able similarity with the great escarpments along other
passive margins, the great escarpment of India has
been presumed to be the result of rift-flank uplift, long
distance parallel slope retreat, and divide migration
(Fig. 26.6a). It is now believed that the Western Ghat
Fig. 26.6 Simplified diagrams showing the two main models of escarpment evolution along passive margins. (a) Parallel slope
retreat of rifted margin; (b) warping and degradation or downwearing of asymmetric divide. Refer text for details
263
Escarpment was initiated as a continental edge as a
consequence of rifting and separation of the Seychelles
microcontinent at the time of the eruption of the
Deccan basalts in late Cretaceous, and the present
scarp is the product of long-distance parallel retreat of
the rifted margin (Widdowson 1997). An alternative
explanation is that an asymmetric divide was created
along the western margin because of warping of the
preexisting surface (Fig. 26.6b). The west-facing
steeper slope was aggressively eroded and dissected by
the seaward-flowing streams. Rapid incision and head-
ward erosion along the seaward-facing flank created
deep valleys and gorges, which eventually coalesced to
give rise to a single, continuous escarpment (Ollier
2004; Kale and Shejwalkar 2007).
Although it is generally agreed that the present face
of the great escarpment is formed erosionally and that
the escarpment has receded inland, there are differences
of opinion about how and at what rate the ~1,600-km
long escarpment has migrated inland. Some workers
have inferred substantially high rates of scarp retreat
(1–3 km/1 million years) and long-distance (by 180–
200 km) parallel slope retreat (Widdowson 1997).
However, recent thermochronologic and cosmogenic
isotope data indicate slow rates of scarp retreat along
passive margins and no significant change in location
264
over time (Matmon et al. 2002). Further, these and
other data do not support the concept of long-distance
parallel scarp retreat (Matmon et al. 2002). The alter-
native model that places greater emphasis on degrada-
tion or downwearing of the plateau margin has also not
been well established.
Geomorphologically, there are three essential con-
ditions that create the Western Ghat-type escarpment:
high divide elevation, divide asymmetry, and headward
erosion of rivers of the coastal plain. The asymmetry
of the divide, whether created by rifting or warping,
favors the steep stream heads to breach the divide. The
seaward-draining streams, because of their greater ero-
sional potential, rapidly elongate headward, leading to
the formation of embayments and the recession of the
seaward-facing front of the divide (escarpment) inland.
The offshoots or spurs, jutting out of the escarpment,
are subsequently eroded by the tributary streams drain-
ing roughly orthogonal to the principal coastal streams
(Kale and Shejwalkar 2007). In some cases, the head-
ward erosion by escarpment-parallel tributary streams
may lead to the cutting away of a part of the escarp-
ment, creating an island or outlier. As the escarpment
migrates inland, the headwaters of the plateau rivers
are consumed, leading to the development of beheaded
or truncated valleys. In the process, the plateau rivers
loose headwater area and become misfit or underfit.
If the plateau drainage network orientation is favor-
able, the breaching of the divide (escarpment) by
coastward-flowing streams may also lead to the sei-
zure of the waters of the opposing, more gently sloped
plateau streams, leading to river piracy as well as the
destruction and lowering of the drainage divide.
26.5 Conclusions
The Western Ghat Escarpment is one of the classic
examples of passive margin great escarpments in the
world. Apart from the gigantic escarpment, the western
margin of India displays all the typical morphological
features associated with trailing edges of tectonic plates.
Due to its high mean elevation and copious monsoon
rainfall, the scarp zone is an area of spectacular scenery,
rugged terrain, precipitous slopes, deep valleys, impres-
sive waterfalls, and dense forests teeming with wildlife.
In the Indian context, the Western Ghat is a vital ele-
ment of the physical as well as the cultural landscape for
several reasons. Geomorphologically, the gigantic
V.S. Kale
landform is second only to the great Himalayan Mountains
in terms of dimension and grandeur. It is the longest con-
tinuous topographic feature outside the Himalayan region.
Climatologically, this prominent feature plays a signifi-
cant role in the spatial distribution of monsoon rainfall
over the Indian Peninsula. Hydrologically, its significance
lies in the fact that it is the fountainhead of many great
Indian rivers and numerous small coastal rivers.
Environmentally, due to its great topographic and climatic
diversity, it comprises a rich and unique assemblage of
flora and fauna. Not surprisingly, this outstanding land-
form is known as Sahyadri, the benevolent mountain.
The Author
Vishwas Kale is a Professor in the Department of
Geography, University of Pune, India. His research
interests include palaeohydrology, fluvial and flood
geomorphology, Quaternary geomorphology, and
landscape evolution. He has over two dozen research
papers in peer-reviewed international journals such as
Nature, Geomorphology, Catena, Quaternary Science
Reviews, Climate Change etc.
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