Malabar travel-the heights clustering around it form the High Rage

 A narrow littoral with a maximum width of 120 km, Kerala is traversed by numerous rivers, the more important ones being the Bhartapuzha 265km, Periyar 230km, Chaliyar 155km, Pamba 145km Kadalundi 120km and Chalakudi 110 km.

The Western Ghats form a picturesque backdrop to this garden state. They consist of rugged cliffs and rocky spurs clothed with florid forest. Anamudi is the highest peak 2,690m. the heights clustering around it form the High Rage. To its south are the Cardamom Hills. About 10.55 lakh hectares is covered by forest.

There are sis hundred species of timber, the more valuable among them being teak, rosewood, ebony, cedar ad softwood. (The antiquity of Kerala teak in the world market is established by the discovery of this timber in the excavations at Ur.) the fauna is also rich –elephant, leopard, bear, gaur, sambar and Nilgiri ibex. 

The land is so fertile that it yields its fruits to the mere touch of human hand. Along the coast the soil is whitish and sand mixed with clay, in the lower parts of the valleys it is brownish clay, and upper regions consists of literate. The entire State being rain fed (the rain fall is as much as 500 cm in the Hills) there is hardly any wasteland.  `the whole of the way by land lies under the shade of trees, and in the space of two month’s journey there is not one span free from cultivation; everybody has his garden, and his house is plated in the middle of it.’ Excessive rain and the flooding of rivers have however led to soil erosion-the sea is also eating into Kerala’s shores.