The Deccan Plateau (Marathi: दख्खन), also known as the Peninsular Plateau or the Great Peninsular Plateau, is a large plateau in Inia, making up the majority of the southern part of the country. It is located between three mountain ranges and extends over eight Indian states. Its uplands make up a triangle nested within the familiar downward-pointing triangle of the Indian sub-continent's coastline. It is technically a vast plateau with a wide range of habitats, encompassing most of central and southern India. It is bounded in the west by the Western Ghats and in the east by the Eastern Ghats which each rise from their respective nearby coastal plains and nearly meet at the southern tip of India. These two formations form the southward-pointing vertex of a triangle which encompasses the plateau with the roughly west-south-west to east-north-east running Satpura Range and Vindhya Range forming the third northern boundary of the region. The northern ranges separate the plateau from the heavily populated riverine plains of northern India.