Mountain ranges of India
India's relief is built around three mountain families. The Himalayan and trans-Himalayan ranges in the north are young fold mountains that are still rising. The north-eastern hills carry that arc south along the Myanmar border. The peninsular ranges — from the ancient Aravalli to the Western and Eastern Ghats — are far older, worn down by millions of years of erosion. Exams return to them constantly: highest peaks, passes, and which states each range touches.
Greater Himalayas (Himadri)
Himalayan ranges- Highest peak
- Kangchenjunga (highest in India) — 8,586 m
- Length
- ~2,400 km
- States / region
- Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh
- Key fact
- Most continuous Himalayan range with an average elevation of about 6,000 m — Everest (in Nepal) and Kangchenjunga belong to it.
Tap a range on the map or choose one from the list.
Himalayan ranges
North-eastern hills
Peninsular ranges
Quick facts for exams
Kangchenjunga (8,586 m) in Sikkim is the highest peak located fully within India; K2 (8,611 m) lies in the Karakoram.
The Aravalli is the oldest fold mountain range in India; the Himalayas are the youngest.
Anamudi (2,695 m) in the Western Ghats is the highest peak of peninsular India.
The Nilgiri hills are the meeting point of the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats.
Himalayan & trans-Himalayan ranges
The Himalayas run as three parallel ranges — the Greater Himalayas (Himadri), the Lesser Himalayas (Himachal) and the outermost Shiwaliks. North of them lie the trans-Himalayan Karakoram, Ladakh and Zanskar ranges, home to K2 and the Siachen glacier. Famous passes such as Zoji La, Nathu La and Rohtang cross these ranges, and exam papers regularly ask which range a pass or peak belongs to.
North-eastern hills
At the Dihang gorge the Himalayan arc bends sharply south and continues along the Myanmar border as the Purvanchal — the Patkai, Naga, Manipur and Mizo hills. The Garo, Khasi and Jaintia hills of Meghalaya are different: geologically they are a detached block of the old peninsular plateau, and their southern slopes at Mawsynram and Cherrapunji receive the heaviest rainfall on Earth.
Peninsular ranges
The peninsular block carries India's oldest mountains. The Aravalli is a heavily eroded relict range. The Vindhya and Satpura cross central India between the Narmada and Tapi valleys. Along the coasts, the continuous Western Ghats and the broken Eastern Ghats frame the Deccan plateau, meeting at the Nilgiris — where Doddabetta rises near Ooty.
Major ranges at a glance
| Range | Group | Highest peak | Height | States / region |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Karakoram | Himalayan | K2 (Godwin Austen) | 8,611 m | Ladakh (trans-Himalaya), along the northern frontier |
| Pir Panjal | Himalayan | Indrasan | 6,221 m | Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh |
| Greater Himalayas (Himadri) | Himalayan | Kangchenjunga (highest in India) | 8,586 m | Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh |
| Shiwalik (Outer Himalayas) | Himalayan | — | — | Foothill belt from Jammu through Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand eastward |
| Purvanchal hills | North-eastern | Saramati (Naga hills) | 3,826 m | Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram |
| Garo–Khasi–Jaintia hills | North-eastern | Shillong Peak | 1,961 m | Meghalaya |
| Aravalli | Peninsular | Guru Shikhar (Mount Abu) | 1,722 m | Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat |
| Vindhya | Peninsular | Sadbhawna Shikhar (Kalumar) | 752 m | Madhya Pradesh, extending into Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh |
| Satpura | Peninsular | Dhupgarh (Pachmarhi) | 1,350 m | Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh |
| Western Ghats (Sahyadri) | Peninsular | Anamudi (Kerala) | 2,695 m | Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu |
| Eastern Ghats | Peninsular | Arma Konda (Andhra Pradesh) | 1,680 m | Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu |
| Nilgiri hills | Peninsular | Doddabetta (Ooty) | 2,637 m | Tamil Nadu–Karnataka–Kerala junction |
The map above is a simplified schematic drawn for study purposes. Range alignments and boundaries are approximate and not to scale. Heights and lengths are rounded to commonly cited figures.