The State the Fifteenth Plan is being written for: Kerala in area, rivers and coast

Background

As the State Planning Board gathers ideas for the Fifteenth Five-Year Plan, here is the ground the plan covers, as the Kerala Legislature's own profile of the State sets it out. Kerala has an area of 38,863 sq km, which is about 1.18 per cent of India. Its population is nearly 3.34 crore, about 2.76 per cent of the country. The State is a narrow strip along the Arabian Sea, about 590 km long and between 32 and 120 km wide. It falls into three natural regions, the highlands, the midlands and the lowlands, with the Western Ghats dominating the highlands. Anamudi is the highest peak at 2,775 m, and Agasthyarkoodam comes next. Kerala has 44 rivers, of which 41 flow west and three flow east, and the longest is the Bharathapuzha at 251 km. There are 34 backwaters large and small, the biggest being Vembanad Lake at about 200 sq km.