The Eastern Ghats are a discontinuous range of mountains, eroded and cut through by the four major rivers of southern India, the Godavari, Mahanadi, Krishna, and Kaveri. These mountain ranges run from West Bengal state in the north, through Orissa and Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu in the south. The region boasts of fertile soil but hydropower generation here is not as profitable as it is in the Western Ghats. These ranges run parallel to the Bay of Bengal. The Eastern Ghats are not as high as the Western Ghats. As with the Western Ghats, these mountain ranges also have their local names, e.g. the Velikonda Range of Andhra Pradesh.

At their southern end, the Eastern Ghats are not continuous, but form several ranges of low hills. The southernmost of the Ghats are the low Sirumalai and Karanthamalai hills of southern Tamil Nadu. North of the Kaveri river are higher Kollimalai, Pachaimalai, Shevaroy (Servaroyan), Chitteri, Palamalai, and Mettur hills in northern Tamil Nadu state. The climate of the higher hill ranges is generally cooler and wetter than the surrounding plains, and the hills are home to coffee plantations and enclaves of dry forest. The hill station of Yercaud is located in the Shevaroy Hills. The Bilgiri Hills, which run east from the Western Ghats to the Kaveri river, forms a forested ecological corridor that connects the Eastern and Western Ghats, and allows the second-largest wild elephant population in India to range between the South Eastern Ghats, the Biligiri and Nilgiri hills, and the South Western Ghats.

The Ponnaiyar and Palar rivers flow from headwaters on the Kolar Plateau eastward through gaps in the Ghats; the Javadhu hills lie between the two rivers.

North of the Palar River in Andhra Pradesh, the central portion of the Eastern Ghats consist of two parallel ranges running approximately north-south; the lower Velikonda Range lies to the east, and the higher Palikonda-Lankamalla-Nallamalla ranges lie to the west. The Palar River cuts through the ranges. The Velikonda range eventually descends to the coastal plain in northern Nellore district, while the Nallamalla range continues to the Krishna River. A range of low hills lie between the Krishna and the Godavari, but north of the Godavari the Eastern Ghats increase again in height, forming the boundary between Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.