The amazing gap – Palakkad Gap

Palakkad Gap is something that would amaze anyone. It is a huge, wide low mountain pass in the Western Ghats, near Palakkad town in Kerala. It’s simply great to see from the picture below, how such an opening was left out when the mountains formed up. Look up the wikimapia and you can see the western ghats towering over the Kerala border right from the south all the way up north Kerala… its only here there is an opening and apparently its as wide as 30 km

The gap is the lowest pass through the Western Ghats. It is also the only break in that stretch of the western ghats,  that otherwise runs along the entire eastern side of Kerala separating it from the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu. This gap is so well placed that Kerala has got a way to get into the other parts of India through plains, i must say. What amazes me is that man identified / discovered this so well and apparently this has been used by people since ancient times

Palakkad has a huge Tamil population, and its apparently so because Tamil folks en-masse moved in here from areas in South tamilnadu through this gap, which is a major entry point into Kerala. Rail and buses get into TN through here.

If you visit the border of Kerala & TN around Walayar, you would be able to literally see the opening up of the mountain. The huge opening in the western ghats bring arid air from Tamilnadu side into Kerala and also rain bearing clouds from the Arabian sea reaches places like Coimbatore in TN through this opening. If not for this gap, i am certainly sure Coimbatore and areas around this place would have been totally dry …

At times, we have to simply give it up to God… his ways of doing things are marvelous…. truly superb !