The land of Kerala encompasses the slim coastal strip encircled by the Western Ghats on the east and the Arabian aquatic on the West in the southern part of the Indian isthmus. The ecological location of Kerala has its own exclusivity and its landscape its own gorgeousness. This strip of land on the eastern rim, close to the Ghats, comprises of sheer peaks and unfathomable valleys, roofed with opaque forests. More or less all the rivers of the state begin here. Tea and coffee estates have cropped up in the lofty ranges during the preceding two centuries.
The prehistory of Kerala is masked in murkiness. But this land had acquaintances with the countries of the external world even from the time immemorial. Kerala experiences the moist equatorial tropic weather.
Beside a sun soaked seashore, to the farthest south west of the Indian cape, lies Kerala, beautiful and benevolent. Flanked by the Arabian marine on the west and the stacks of the Western Ghats on the east, this land elongate north-south along a beach line of 580 kms with a anecdotal breadth of 35 to 120 kms. Gushing gracefully down the hills to the blond shores roofed by luxuriant coconut groves, the landscape and physical distinctiveness vary distinctly from east to west.
The backwaters are a peculiar mark of the state. Canals connect the lakes and backwaters to ease a continuous inland water navigation structure from Thiruvananthapuram to Vadakara, a distance of 450 kms. The Vembanad Lake stretching from Alappuzha to Kochi is the largest water basin and is over 200 sq.kms. in area. Water-logged Kuttanad alone forms more than 20 per cent of India's total length of waterways.
There are 44 rivers in the state, of which 41 originate from the Western Ghats and flow towards west into the Arabian sea. These rivers and streams flowing down from the Western Ghats either pour out themselves in to the backwaters in the coastal area or directly into the Arabian Sea.
