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The Kerala State
lies along the south-west corner of Peninsular India, between 80 18’ and 120 48’
N latitude and 740 52’ and 770 22’E longitude. The boundaries of the State are
the Lakshadweep sea in the west, Tamilnadu in the south and east and Karnataka
in the north. The State has an area of 38,863 km2, which is about 1.18 percent
of the total area of the country and is administratively divided into 14
districts. Due to the long tract of Western Ghats along the eastern side and
Arabian sea along the western side, the physiography of the State is highly
diversified. The State has a complex topography with mountains, valleys, ridges
and scarps. The altitude varies from sea level to 2695 m above msl. Based on the
altitude, the land is divided into high ranges (above 750 m asl; highlands
(between 75-750 m asl); midland (between 7.5-75 m asl) and lowlands (below 7.5 m
asl). The highlands with an average height of 900 m have several peaks over
1,800 m and constitute about 43 per cent of the land area followed by midland
(42 percent); high ranges (15 per cent) and lowland (10 per cent) [Kerala Land
Use Board, 1997]. A narrow strip of land bordering the sea constitutes the low
land area of the State and this region holds the back waters and estuaries.
Mangroves and coastal vegetation are confined to this region. Parallel to the
coastal strip, there is wider more or less undulating midland zone. Most of the
human activities and agricultural settlements are concentrated in this region.
The natural vegetation is rather scanty and occurring as small refugees. These
two regions constitute the major human habitats in the State. Wider eastern
highland region constitutes the important region with regard to the
Biodiversity. This region is highly undulating and has a complex geography
compared to the other zones. These mountain ridges are continuous from north to
south except the 30 km wide gap in the Palakkad district. These mountain chains
influence the climate of the State to a greater extent. |
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