The Eastern Coastal Plain

The eastern coastal plain lies between the Eastern Ghats and the Bay of Bengal, and stretches along the coasts of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. These plains are formed by the alluvial fillings of the littoral zone comprising some of the largest deltas of the world. The East coastal plains consist mainly of Recent and Tertiary alluvial deposits. These are gentle, monotonous plains rising gently westward to the foot of the Eastern Ghats. The monotony of the topogr aphy is broken by the presence of numerous hills. This coastal plain has a straight shoreline with well defined beaches of sand and shingles. The most famous is the Marina Beach in Chennai. All along the coast, there are several sandbars generally in front of the river mouths. There are some of the important lagoons of India along the Eastern coast, of which, Chilka in the south-west of the Mahanadi delta is the biggest lake (65 km X 8 km) in the country. The Kulleru lake lies

between the deltas of Godavari and Kr ishna, while the Pulicat lake lies further south on the border of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.