sandstone hills located in the northern part of the Satpura Range, in southern Madhya Pradesh state, central India. The hills have small plateaus and steep scarps that were formed during the Carboniferous Period (about 360 to 300 million years ago). The hills have a gentle northern slope but are steep to the south, where they drop abruptly from 3,600 feet (1,100 metres) to below 900 feet (275 metres). The general trend of the hills is east-northeast. To the north the sacred Narmada River flows through the 20- to 40-mile- (32- to 64-km-) wide valley floor between the Mahadeo Hills and the Vindhya Range to the north. The bedrock is extensively overlain by tracts of brown soil on which flourish deciduous forests. Lumbering and charcoal burning are economically important on the Mahadeo slopes. The economy of the area, however, is generally poor.