Vacation Travel India

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Deccan peninsula

It was on the “table-tops” of the steep-sided hills of the black lava-covered Deccan that the Marathas built a series of impregnable fortresses. Cut across by the Krishna, Godavari and Kaveri rivers flowing east, the wet Karnataka plateau has dense sandal, teak and sissu forests, where elephants roam wild. The Telengana plateau to the east has only a thin cover of red lateritic soils with rocky humps between. Thorny scrub and wild Indian date palms grow on this soil. Tanks are built in the dried river channels to hold water when the rivers are briefly in flood. Here is the former princely state of Hyderabad, the pearl city, surrounded by vineyards.

Southwest of the plateau, separated from Kerala by the blue Nilgiris, with coffee and tea plantations, and the cloud-covered Palani Hills in the rain shadow, is the Coimbatore plateau, which extends east to the coast near Chennai. The Kaveri, which rises here, flows east into the Tamil Nadu plains. The fertile Kaveri delta is the rice bowl of Tamil Nadu, its prosperity expressed in the exuberant temple architecture of towns such as Thanjavur.

Looking east

India’s stony east coast, with vast exposed spaces scattered with aloes and palm trees and swampy alluvial shores, merges northwards into the fertile deltaic lowlands of the Krishna, Godavari and Mahanadi rivers. Wooded forests replace fields of sugar cane and tobacco in places reached by the summer monsoon.

Replenishing itself in its passage over the Bay of Bengal, the southwest monsoon continues westwards along the wide Ganga plain and eastward along the Brahmaputra gorge.

Eastwards, the Brahmaputra Valley cuts across the Shillong plateau, by the Garo, Khasi and Jaintia hills, through the Assam-Burma range. The Brahmaputra swings across its wide valley in an immense rocky corridor. Tiny hamlets are surrounded by rice fields and tea plantations. On the slopes tussar silkworms are bred on mulberry trees, and pineapple plantations are prolific.

Mangrove delta

The Brahmaputra reaches the wet Ganga delta dominated by the port of Kolkata. Criss-crossed by the distributaries of an ever-growing delta, the mangrove forests offer cover for the endangered Bengal tiger. Inland, jungle has been cleared to cultivate barley and pulses.

Following the monsoon winds westwards comes the Middle Ganga plain where the annual rainfall decreases from 140 cm (55 inches) to 80 cm (31 inches) near Delhi. North of this plain are the foothills of the Himalaya across which the tributaries of the Ganga flow through steep reed-filled courses in sal forests. Here, as in the Dooars of Bengal, the Terai has jungles of sisoo and tamarisk that afford excellent hideouts for tigers.

When the now comparatively dry monsoon winds reach the upper course of the Ganga, the fields are ready for sowing. The canal-irrigated wheat plains of Punjab merge into the dry land of Haryana to the southwest. Delhi, the gateway to the Ganga plain, is located here. Northward, the foothill ridges of the Shivaliks and the gravel vales rise through ridges and valleys to the snowcapped peaks of the Himalaya. The ascent is from around 300-600 metres (980-1,960 ft) above the plain to 4,800 metres (15,750 ft) in the middle Himalaya where the peaks of Nanda Devi rise up to 7,000 metres (22,970 ft).

The Teesta Valley in the Eastern Himalaya lies opposite the Ganga delta at the head of which is Sikkim. Orchids and rhododendrons grow wild here and the musk deer and rhinoceros are found in these dense forests. The valleys are a patchwork of paddy fields, and on the terraced slopes are yellow maize and millet fields.

The Central Himalaya, in Himachal Pradesh, is a favourite for trekking and fishing. Here the golden snowcapped Dholadhar ranges separate the River Beas from the Ravi. At the head of the Beas are apple orchards and the Kullu Valley. Chir and deodar jungles enclose the sloping river terraces of the Sutlej, covered with potato and rice fields. From Kullu the traditional routes of the Bhutia shepherds enter the upland pastures of Ladakh. The lowest valleys of the Himalayan foothills, the Terai, are hot and sultry in summer and have heavy rainfall in July. Here the nomadic ways of the Bhutias are replaced by a settled pastoral economy on the forest edge, and farming in the valleys.

Technorati Tags: India Land and Weather

There are several India tour packages available and if you’ve chosen the right one for you, it’s time to learn about the country itself.

The southwest monsoon dominates most of the country from late June to the end of September, bringing high humidity and heavy rain. As these winds retreat in October, the land dries out and humidity levels fall. The southeastern coasts, however, have rain and cyclonic squalls until January.

In November, with the strength of the sun diminishing, the winter season starts in the northern plain. Until February the weather remains cold (below 5°C/41°F) in the Himalaya and its foothills (where skiing is possible), pleasant in the plains (between 15°C/59°F and 20°C/68°F), and warm (above 20°C/68°F) in South India, except in the cooler uplands.

India’s summer, which runs from March to May, is hot and dry, with flurries of wind raising a dusty curtain over the northern plain and maximum daytime temperatures averaging 40°C (104CF). South India is sultry and hot but temperatures are usually bearable, between 27°C (80°F) and 29°C(84°F).

Come June, the intense heat of the northern plain causes the upper air currents to move north of the Himalaya and draw the monsoon across the entire country. Starting from the southwestern coast, it branches eastward and northward, and on reaching the Ganga delta follows the wide river valleys bounded by the Himalaya with its heavily forested foothills.

Luxuriant rainforests blanket the hills along the southwest coast, in Kerala, where the lowland lagoons are canopied by coconut trees. The coast stretches north to the estuarine plains of Goa where wide sunny beaches are lapped by the gentle waves of the Arabian Sea. The rest of the coast is mostly rocky, rising to the low red lateritic plateaus and then more steeply to the black, forest-covered slopes of the Western Ghats. Further north, in Kathiawar, the coast becomes salt-encrusted with marshy lowlands rich with flamingo.

Inland, open country covered with cotton and sunflower fields merges into rocky desert. From the Rann (saline marshlands) of Kutch in the west to the Luni River is the Great Desert, and further north between Jaisalmer and Jodhpur is the Little Desert. Here is open scrub country with rocky hills often capped by the forts of the Rajput kings. Wandering herds of sheep and goats, and camels carrying cotton and marble, are seen in this area.

Separating the desert from the Gangetic plain and the Deccan lava tableland are the rugged plateaus of Malwa, Bundelkhand and Rewa. Stony, harsh and covered with only a thin layer of soil, the plateau is drained by the Chambal, Ken and Betva rivers. Badlands are formed by the ravines made by the rivers, and fields of mustard and wheat form a patchwork of green and gold.

On the west, steeply rising from the plain to the lava plateau, is the Vindhya range of hills. The Narmada river, flowing through a narrow gorge, and the river Tapi, through a broad valley, are separated by the Satpura range. South of the Tapi are the hills housing the carved and painted caves at Ajanta and Ellora. At the mouth of the Tapi is the ancient port city of Surat, famous for its gold and silver brocade (zari). It was here, in 1608, that the British East India Company set up its first “factory”, as its trading centres were called.

By 15 June, the eastward-moving monsoon winds reach the Chota Nagpur plateau in Jhark-hand, which is drained by the Damodar. It is a wide plateau with conical and dome-shaped hills that look like gigantic bubbles.

During the three long monsoon months the brown forests of sal, bamboo and teak turn green and Adivasi peoples collect lac (the secretion of a forest insect) and mahua flowers. The steel city of Jamshedpur and the coal and iron-ore mines contribute to India’s increasing pollution and deforestation. The plateau is flanked in the east by the Rajmahal Hills, which descend steeply to the Ganga plain where the river takes a sharp bend to the sea.

Technorati Tags: India Land and Weather