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Bayaluseemé orBayalu Seemé is the area lying to the east ofMalenadu, a region ofKarnataka state inIndia. The area is largely open plain, with few hillocks. It includes the districts ofBengaluru,Bengaluru Rural,Ramanagara,Bagalkot,Vijayapura,Chitradurga,Davanagere,Vijayanagara,Ballari,Kalaburagi,Dharwad,Koppal,Kolar,Gadag,Hassan,Bidar,Haveri,Belagavi,Mandya,Chikkaballapur,Chamarajanagar,Mysuru,Yadgir,Raichur andTumakuru.
Bayalu Seeme has a gently rolling surface, punctuated by several of the large rivers that rise in the Western Ghats and flow eastward to empty into theBay of Bengal.[1] It is often subdivided into the northern and southern Bayalu Seeme.
Northern Bayalu Seeme is a dry, mostly treeless expanse of plateau, its elevation being between 300 and 700 meters. It coversBelagavi district,Ballari district,Bidar district,Bagalkot district,Koppal district,Vijayapura district,Davanagere district,Chitradurga district,Dharwad district,Kalaburagi district andRaichur district. It is drained by theKrishna River and its tributaries theBhima River,Ghataprabha River,Malaprabha River, andTungabhadra River. It mostly lies within theDeccan thorn scrub forests' ecoregion, which extends north into easternMaharashtra and east intoAndhra Pradesh andTelangana.
Southern Bayalu Seeme, also known as the Southern Karnataka Plateau, is made up of the low rolling granite hills from 600 to 900 meters elevation. It is bounded on the west by the Western Ghats and on the south and east by ranges of hills, and on the north it drops to the lower-elevation northern Maidan. The plateau is drained by theKaveri river along with its tributaries -Shimsha,Arkavati,Kabini,Lakshmana Tirtha andHemavati. ThePalar,Ponnaiyar and Uttara Pinakini rivers arise from the eastern region of this plateau atNandi Hills. It includesBangalore Urban district,Bangalore Rural district,Chamarajanagar district,Hassan district,Kolar district,Mandya district,Mysuru district,Tumkur district and parts ofChikkamagaluru district. Most of the southern Maidan is covered by theSouth Deccan Plateau dry deciduous forests ecoregion, which extends south into easternTamil Nadu.
Bayalu Seeme lies in the rain shadow of theWestern Ghats, and is generally much drier than Coastal Karnataka (Karavali) and the Western Ghats.[1] The region was originally covered by extensive, open-canopiedTropical dry deciduous forests, characterized by the treesAcacia,Albizia andHardwickia. But much of the original forest has been cleared for agriculture,timber,[2] grazing and firewood.
Overexploitation of the forests for fuelwood and fodder has resulted in much of the original forest being degraded intothickets[2] and scrublands.Canthium parriflorum,Cassia auriculata,Dodonaea viscosa,Erythroxylum monogynum,Pterolobium hexapetalum andEuphorbia antiquorum are species typical of the thicket and scrubland vegetation.
