In the area that is now India, massive lava beds called the Deccan Traps were erupted in the very late Cretaceous and early Paleocene.

Several impact craters and massive volcanic activity, such as that in the Deccan Traps, have been dated to the approximate time of the extinction event.

Before 2000, arguments that the Deccan Traps flood basalts caused the extinction were usually linked to the view that the extinction was gradual, as the flood basalt events were thought to have started around 68 Ma and lasted for over 2 million years.

The Deccan Traps could have caused extinction through several mechanisms, including the release of dust and sulfuric aerosols into the air, which might have blocked sunlight and thereby reduced photosynthesis in plants.

In the years when the Deccan Traps hypothesis was linked to a slower extinction, Luis Alvarez ( who died in 1988 ) replied that paleontologists were being misled by sparse data.

However, even Walter Alvarez has acknowledged that there were other major changes on Earth even before the impact, such as a drop in sea level and massive volcanic eruptions that produced the Indian Deccan Traps, and these may have contributed to the extinctions.

The Deccan Traps as seen from Matheran, MH, India

The Deccan Traps shown as dark purple spot on the geologic map of India

Deccan Traps near Matheran, east of Mumbai

The Deccan Traps near Pune

The Deccan Traps formed between 60 and 68 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous period.

The Deccan Traps region was reduced to its current size by erosion and plate tectonics ; the present area of directly observable lava flows is around.

Because of its magnitude, scientists formerly speculated that the gases released during the formation of the Deccan Traps played a role in the Cretaceous – Paleogene extinction event ( also known as the K-Pg extinction ), which included the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs.

Within the Deccan Traps at least 95 % of the lavas are tholeiitic basalts, however other rock types do occur:

The Deccan Traps are famous for the beds of fossils that have been found between layers of traps lava.

It is postulated that the Deccan Traps eruption was associated with a deep mantle plume.

The area of long-term eruption ( the hotspot ), known as the Réunion hotspot, is suspected of both causing the Deccan Traps eruption and opening the rift that once separated the Seychelles plateau from India.

The researchers claiming that this feature is an impact crater suggest that the impact may have been the triggering event for the Deccan Traps as well as contributing to the acceleration of the Indian plate in the early Paleogene.

nl: Deccan Traps

Large igneous provinces ( LIP ) such as Iceland, the Siberian Traps, Deccan Traps, and the Ontong Java Plateau are extensive regions of basalts on a continental scale resulting from flood basalt eruptions.

The Réunion hotspot produced the Deccan Traps about 65 million years ago, coincident with the Cretaceous – Paleogene extinction event.

Continental flood basalts are known to exist in the Deccan Traps in India, the Chilcotin Group in British Columbia, Canada, the Paraná Traps in Brazil, the Siberian Traps in Russia, the Karoo flood basalt province in South Africa, the Columbia River Plateau of Washington and Oregon.

Areas of the Deccan Traps ( a basaltic lava ) in west central India are good examples of rock formations with high porosity but low permeability, which makes them poor aquifers.

The Western Victorian Volcanic Plains are the third largest in the world after the Deccan in western India, and the Snake River Plateau in Idaho, United States.

Three tropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregions, the East Deccan dry evergreen forests, the Sri Lanka dry-zone dry evergreen forests, and the Southeastern Indochina dry evergreen forests, are characterized by evergreen trees.

The Birhor, a people that were traditionally residents of the jungle of Chota Nagpur Plateau in the northeast Deccan ( India ), are organized into patrilineal, exogamous totem groups.

Two examples are the Battle of Palkhed in 1728 when he outmaneuvered the Mughal Governor of the Deccan province, and again in the battle against the Mughal Emperor, Muhammad Shah at Delhi during 1739.

Two known clusters of ' false Sayeds ' are: the so-called ' Sayeds of Sindh ' in modern Pakistan, descendants of the Ansar ( helpers ) of a Sayedi / Sharifi refugee from Madinah whose line died out early on thus creating the impression amongst the descendants of those who sheltered him that they were Ahl an ' Naas (' of the blood ') and the ' Talukdari Sayeds ' of Hyderabad Deccan in Southern India, the descendants of Muhammad an adopted son of Muhammad and therefore also not ' of the blood '.

Since both rocks are found in the Deccan Plateau, it indicates two different environments of formation.

The three large cities in the Deccan are Chennai the capital of Tamil Nadu, Hyderabad the capital of Andhra Pradesh and Bangalore the capital of Karnataka.

During this time, the empire was often in conflict with the Muslim kingdoms which had become established in the northern Deccan, and which are often collectively termed the Deccan sultanates.

These are commonly associated with the Deccan region today, and especially the city of Bijapur in particular, under Adil Shahi dynasty patronage in the 17th century.

Lonavla and the adjacent Khandala are twin hill stations 622 m. above sea level, in the Sahyadri ranges that demarcate the Deccan Plateau and the Konkan coast.

After 1518 the sultanate broke up into five states: Nizamshahi of Ahmednagar, Qutubshahi of Golconda ( Hydrabad ) Baridshahi of Bidar, Imadshahi of Varhad, Adilshahi of Bijapur. They are collectively known as " Deccan Sultanates "

The dam is an exquisite piece of architecture, an engineering marvel for that time, and provides water to lots of surrounding cities, towns and villages, which are largely dry lands of the Deccan area of Central Karnataka.

There are more number of urdu newspapers published in hyderabad, IndiaThe Siasat Daily, The Munsif Daily, Indian Etemaad and Rehnuama E Deccan. Bombay now Mumbai also have some good publication of urdu daily The inquilab daily and Urdu Times and from West Bengal Urdu newspapers like The Azad Hind daily, The Akhbaar-e-Mashriq daily, The Aabshaar daily and The rashtriya Sahara daily are also being brought out from CALCUTTA at present Kolkata

The earliest Buddhist rock-cut cave abodes and sacred places ( chaiti ) are found in the western Deccan dating back to the 3rd century BC.

The East Deccan dry evergreen forests are an ecoregion of southeastern India.

Assuming the correctness of the identification of the Pallavas with the pauranic Pahlavas, and of the Pahlavas with the Parthians, there are good historical grounds for supposing that Parthian colonies established themselves in the Deccan at a very early period.

The 17th century saw a steady expansion of its territory and, under Narasaraja Wodeyar I and Chikka Devaraja Wodeyar, the kingdom annexed large expanses of what is now southern Karnataka and parts of Tamil Nadu, to become a powerful state in the southern Deccan.

He sent a large body of troops to the aid of the two claimants of the sovereignty of the Carnatic and the Deccan.

These extremely rapid, large scale eruptions of basaltic magmas have periodically formed continental flood basalt provinces on land and oceanic plateaus in the ocean basins, such as the Deccan Traps, the Siberian Traps the Karoo / Ferrar flood basalts of Gondwana ,< ref > and the largest known continental flood basalt, the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province ( CAMP ).

The Deccan Plateau is a large plateau in India, making up most of the southern part of the country.

Its modern distribution in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan is unknown with some sizable large number in India in open areas of Deccan Peninsula.

It comprised large portions of the broad belt of hill and plateau, which separates the plains of the Ganges and the Deccan plateau.

In 1634 the area became known as Payanghat Subah ( Lowlands Province ) while Chikli and Mehkar were part of Balaghat Subah ( Highlands Province ), but by 1636 Berar became part of a large province called Deccan.

Bijapur being the capital and big business centre attracted merchants and travelers in large number from the Deccan and many parts of India and foreign lands.