Eastern Coast and Western Coast of India

The Eastern and Western coasts of India are believed to be originated due to the faulting and subsidence of the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea respectively. Although both the coasts extend from North and South and share some features, they are different from each other. Let us see how the eastern coast of India differs from the western coast of India!

Eastern Coast of India:

The eastern coast of India is located along the east coast of India. It is washed by the Bay of Bengal and extends from the Ganga delta to Kanyakumari (North to South). Its width ranges from 80 to 100 km that makes it more extensive and broad than its western counterpart. It is an aggradational plain which means an increase in the land elevation. It is characterized by sea beaches, lagoons, and offshore bars.

It is a sandy coast with straight shorelines and mostly comprises recent and tertiary alluvium deposits. It has received many large river-deltas made by the large rivers and receives rainfall from the North East Monsoons. Although the cyclonic storms are frequent on this coast, it is suitable for the cultivation of rice and jute.

The eastern coast cuts through the three Indian states: Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Odisha. So, it is also has some regional names like Utkal Coast in the Odisha and Coromandel Coast or Payan Ghat in the Tamil Nadu.

Western Coast of India:

The western coast of India is located along the west coast of India. It is located between Kerala and Gujarat and extends from the Arabian Sea to the Western Ghats. Its total length is 1400 km, width ranges from 10 km to 80 km, and the elevation ranges from 150 m to 300 m above sea level. It is characterized by sandy beaches, mud-flats, sand-dunes, alluvial tracts, estuaries, lagoons, residual hills and more. It lacks deltas as the short and swift rivers are not able to make deltas in this coast.

The west coast can be divided into three parts:

Konkan: It is the Northern part of the coast that includes Goa and Mumbai and extends from Daman to Goa.

Kanara: It is the central stretch of the coast that comprises three coastal districts: Dakshina Kannada, and Udupi district (South Canara) and Uttara Kannada (North Canara).

Malabar Coast: It is the southern stretch, a long and narrow coastline that extends from the South of Goa to Kanyakumari.

Based on the above information, some of the critical differences between the eastern coast of India and the western coast of India are as follows:

Eastern Coast	Western Coast
It lies along the East coast of India.	It lies along the West coast of India.
It is washed by the Bay of Bengal.	It is washed by the Arabian Sea.
It extends smoothly from North to South with a broad plain with a level surface.	It also runs from North to South, but it is intersected by mountain ridges at some places.
It is smooth, so it is not suitable for making ports.	It is indented and broken, so it is suitable for making ports.
It receives comparatively low rainfall.	It receives comparatively heavy rainfall.
It is mostly formed by fine alluvial soil, so it is fertile especially on the deltas.	It is mostly formed by coarse-grained soil, so it is infertile and thus not suitable for agriculture except the land of Malabar Coast.
It has broad deltas formed by the large rivers.	The short and swift rivers don't make deltas in the West Coast.