Located at the southern extent of the Deccan Plateau, Karnataka is a goldmine of natural, cultural and artistic variety.
Extending from the Arabian Sea and the fertile forested ridges of the Western Ghats, with their thriving plantations of coffee, spices and fruit, to the drier, boulder-strewn region of the Deccan Plateau, Karnataka’s scenic diversity is striking.
Karnataka’s three great rivers, the Kaveri, Tungabhadra and Krishna, originate in the beautiful, forested hill country of the Western Ghats, the state’s natural and hugely bio-diverse border. Here awesome waterfalls stud the Malnad’s wildlife parks. The little-visited coastline is emerald lush with river estuaries feeding unique mangrove swamps that rival Kerala’s famous backwaters.
The chasm between the values, outlook and prosperity of rural Karnataka and the cosmopolitan high-tech metropolis of Bengaluru (Bangalore), is at times shockingly wide. While the city takes huge strides on the global software and biotechnology stages, switchboards hum with outsourced call centre traffic, world-class medics perform miracle heart and brain surgeries, and roads grind to a halt in rush-hour traffic, much of Karnataka remains as if frozen: its red and black earth rocky and covered with scrub, its villagers’ concerns wholly agrarian.
Rounding off the southern extent of the Deccan Plateau, sprawling Karnataka is an inexhaustible goldmine of natural, cultural and artistic variety. Complemented by an ultra professional Karnataka tourism industry and an inherently friendly population, it’s a travellers’ haven that makes for fun, stress free and thoroughly enjoyable gallivanting all the way.
Click on one of the sections on the right for more information about Karnataka or select one of the cities from the map below.
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