South India South India South India is the area including five Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as three union territories of Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Puducherry, occupying 19% of India's area (). Covering the southern part of the peninsular Deccan Plateau, South India is bounded by the Bay of Bengal in the east, the Arabian Sea in the west and the Indian Ocean in the south. The geography of the region is diverse with two mountain ranges–the Western and Eastern Ghats, bordering the plateau heartland. Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri, Tungabhadra and Vaigai rivers
Plateau metaphorically described as the "roof of the world", which is still being formed by the collisions of the Indo-Australian and Eurasian tectonic plates. The Tibetan plateau covers approximately , at about above sea level. The plateau is sufficiently high enough to reverse the Hadley cell convection cycles and to drive the monsoons of India towards the south. The second-highest plateau is the Deosai Plateau of the Deosai National Park (also known as "Deoasai Plains") at an average elevation of . It is located in the Astore and Skardu districts of Gilgit-Baltistan, in northern Pakistan. Deosai means 'the land of giants'.