Karnataka has representatives of all types of variations in topography - high mountains, plateaus, residual hills and coastal plains. The State is enclosed by chains of mountains to its west, east and south. It consists mainly of plateau which has higher elevation of 600 to 900 metres above mean sea level. The entire landscape is undulating, broken up by mountains and deep ravines.

Plain land of elevation less than 300 metres above mean sea level is to be found only in the narrow coastal belt, facing the Arabian Sea. There are quite a few high peaks both in Western and Eastern Ghat systems with altitudes more than 1,500 metres. A series of cross-sections drawn from west to east across the Western Ghat generally exhibit, a narrow coastal plain followed to the east by small and short plateaus at different altitudes, then suddenly rising upto great heights.