Top 10 Volcanoes in India
India's volcanic story is one of extremes. At one end of the timeline stand the Deccan Traps, a stack of flood basalt erupted 66 million years ago that buried what is now Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana under lava up to 2 km thick. At the other end stands Barren Island in the Andaman Sea, a small but persistently active stratovolcano whose most recent eruptive phase began in 2017. Between these poles lie mud volcano fields in Andhra Pradesh, ancient volcanic plugs in Tamil Nadu, and the flood-basalt sourced flat-topped hills of central India that geologists read as frozen witnesses to one of Earth's great extinction events.
Barren Island: India's Only Active Stratovolcano
Barren Island, roughly 135 km northeast of Port Blair in the Andaman archipelago, is the only confirmed active volcano in South Asia. The island is essentially the visible summit of a stratovolcano rising from the floor of the Andaman Sea. Its recorded eruptive history begins in 1787, and significant eruptions occurred in 1991, 1994–95, 2005 and 2017. During active phases, lava flows reach the sea, and ash plumes rise several hundred metres. The island is uninhabited and access is restricted; the Indian Navy operates the nearest meteorological station. The caldera is roughly 2 km wide and the summit cone rises to 354 m.
Narcondam Island: The Dormant Companion
Some 250 km northeast of Barren Island, Narcondam is a small, thickly forested island classified as a dormant volcano. Its last eruptive activity is estimated to have occurred around 1,00,000 years ago. The island is home to the Narcondam hornbill (Rhyticeros narcondami), an endemic species found nowhere else on Earth, and is a restricted wildlife sanctuary. The volcanic origin is visible in the island's steep conical profile rising to 710 m above sea level.
The Deccan Traps: Flood Basalt on a Continental Scale
The Deccan Traps represent the largest flood basalt province in the world still exposed at the surface. Erupted in multiple pulses between 66 and 60 million years ago — broadly contemporaneous with the Chicxulub asteroid impact — the Traps covered at least 500,000 km² with lava flows averaging 30–50 m thick, stacked in sequences reaching 2 km total thickness in places. The flat-topped hills (mesas) of the Western Ghats escarpment near Pune, Mumbai and Nashik are cross-sections through this ancient volcanic pile. Basalt columns up to 30 m tall are exposed in quarries and road cuts throughout Maharashtra.
Dhosi Hill: Ancient Volcano in Haryana
Dhosi Hill in Haryana, near the Rajasthan border, is a solitary flat-topped hill composed of rhyolite lava — one of the few places in the Indian Peninsula where silicic volcanic rock appears at surface. The hill was active approximately 750 million years ago during the Proterozoic era, making it one of India's oldest identifiable volcanic centres. Local Hindu tradition holds the hill sacred, and the ruins of an ancient ashram sit on its summit plateau at around 470 m above surrounding plains.
Mud Volcanoes of Andhra Pradesh and Andaman
India hosts several mud volcano fields. In the Andaman Islands, multiple mud volcano vents occur on North Andaman, Middle Andaman and Baratang islands, erupting cool mud, water and gases — primarily methane and carbon dioxide — from underground sedimentary sources rather than magmatic heat. Baratang's mud volcanoes, located within Jarawa Tribal Reserve territory, are accessible by boat with a forest department permit. On the Indian mainland, the area around Bapatla in Andhra Pradesh contains minor mud seeps associated with natural gas accumulations in the Krishna-Godavari basin.
Lonar Crater: Meteorite or Volcano?
Lonar Crater in Maharashtra, 6 km in diameter and 137 m deep, was long debated as either a meteorite impact crater or a volcanic maar. Current scientific consensus strongly favours meteorite impact, with the crater dated to approximately 52,000 years ago. The saline and alkaline lake occupying the crater floor supports unusual microbial mats and endemic flamingo populations. However, Lonar sits within the Deccan Traps basalt, and the hydrothermal springs at the crater margin show geochemical signatures of ongoing low-level thermal activity.
The Reunion Hotspot Connection
The volcanic chain that produced the Deccan Traps 66 million years ago is now expressed as the Réunion hotspot in the Indian Ocean. As the Indian Plate drifted northeast over the hotspot, the center of volcanic activity shifted south, leaving a trail of submarine and island volcanoes — the Laccadive Ridge, the Chagos Bank and eventually Réunion island — in India's geological wake. This connection makes the Deccan Traps and Réunion part of the same long-lived magmatic system.
Volcanic Features in the Western Ghats
The Western Ghats escarpment between Maharashtra and Karnataka exposes the internal architecture of the Deccan Traps in spectacular cross-sections. Individual lava flows are visible as distinct horizontal bands on cliff faces up to 500 m high. Red bole layers — lateritised weathering horizons between individual eruption events — indicate pauses of thousands of years between flow episodes. The entire stack is tilted slightly eastward due to rift-related uplift of the western margin.
Visiting Volcanic India
Barren Island can be visited by chartered boat from Port Blair; the trip takes about eight hours return and permits must be arranged through the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Forest Department. Narcondam requires a special permit. Dhosi Hill is freely accessible from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan. The Baratang mud volcanoes require advance booking with forest department convoys from Jirkatang check post. The Deccan Trap basalt landscape is most dramatically visible on the train journey between Pune and Mumbai, where cuts through the ghats expose the full volcanic sequence.
Explore on the map
India's volcanic features are scattered across a huge subcontinent and oceanic territory — use the interactive map to locate Barren Island in the Andaman Sea, the Deccan Traps across the Deccan Plateau, and Dhosi Hill in Haryana. Navigate India on the map and explore the full geographical range of this volcanic heritage spanning 65 million years.