The Vindhya range runs across most of central India, covering a distance of 1,050 km (652 miles). The average elevation of these hills is 300 m (1,000 feet). They are believed to have been formed by the wastes created due to the weathering of the ancient Aravalli mountains. It geographically separates northern India from southern India. The western end of the range lies in eastern Gujarat, near its border with the state of Madhya Pradesh, and the range runs east and north nearly to the Ganges River at Mirzapur.

The Satpura Range is a range of hills in central India. It begins in eastern Gujarat near the Arabian Sea coast, then runs east through Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and ends in the state of chhattisgarh. It extends for a distance of 900 km with many of its peaks rising above 1000 m (3,300 feet). It is angular in shape, with its vertex at Ratnapuri and the two sides being parallel to the Tapti and Narmada river.

It runs parallel to the Vindhya Range, which lies to the north, and these two east-west ranges divide the Indo-Gangetic plain of northern India from the Deccan Plateau lying in the south. The Narmada runs in the depression between the Satpura and Vindhya ranges, and drains the northern slope of the Satpura range, running west towards the Arabian Sea.

The Aravalli Range is the oldest mountain range in India, running from northeast to southwest across Rajasthan in western India, extending approximately 500 km (310 miles). The northern end of the range continues as isolated hills and rocky ridges into Haryana, ending near Delhi. The highest peak is Mount Abu, rising to 1,722 m (5,653 feet), lying near the southwestern extremity of the range, close to the border with Gujarat. The city of Ajmer with its lake lies on the southern slope of the range in Rajasthan.

The Aravalli Range is the eroded stub of an ancient folded mountain system that was once snow-capped. The range rose in a Precambrian event called the Aravalli-Delhi orogen. The range joins two of the ancient segments that make up the Indian craton, the Marwar segment to the northwest of the range, and the Bundelkhand segment to the southeast.

The Western Ghats or Sahyadri mountains run along the western edge of India’s Deccan Plateau, and separate the Deccan plateau from a narrow coastal plain along the Arabian Sea. The range starts south of the Tapti River near the border of Gujarat and Maharashtra, and runs approximately 1,600 km (1,000 miles) through the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu, almost to the southern tip of the Indian peninsula. The average elevation is around 1,000 m with the higher peaks occurring in the northern section of the range in Maharashtra. Two of the notable peaks lying in the western ghats are Kalsubai 1,646 m (5,427 feet) and Mahabaleshwar 1,438 m (4,710 feet).