Deccan Plateau

The Deccan Plateau is a large elevated plateau covering much of peninsular India and forming the core of the country’s southern interior. Its geology is dominated in many areas by extensive volcanic basalt known as the Deccan Traps.

The landscape comprises rolling hills, river valleys and plateau plains with mixed agricultural use, historic forts and hilltop sites in several regions. Geologically notable exposures of layered basalt and associated soil types are visible across the plateau.

The volcanic eruptions that produced the Deccan Traps occurred around the end of the Cretaceous period and laid down thick basalt sequences that shape soils and drainage patterns today. Human settlement over millennia established agrarian and urban centres adapted to the plateau environment.

Occupying the central and southern portions of the Indian peninsula, the plateau lies between the Western Ghats to the west and the Eastern Ghats to the east and extends across multiple Indian states.

• Deccan Traps: Much of the plateau is underlain by the Deccan Traps, extensive basalt flows formed by volcanic eruptions around the end of the Cretaceous period.
• Elevation range: Typical elevations range from roughly 300 to 600 metres above sea level, forming a broad elevated peninsular interior between the Western and Eastern Ghats.