The Western Ghats, also known as Sahyadri, is a mountain range that covers an area of 140,000 square kilometres (54,000 sq mi) in a stretch of 1,600 kilometres (990 mi) parallel to the western coast of the Indian peninsula, traversing the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the eight hot-spots of biological diversity in the world. It is sometimes called the Great Escarpment of India. It contains a large proportion of the country's flora and fauna, many of which are only found in India and nowhere else in the world. According to UNESCO, the Western Ghats are older than the Himalayas. They influence Indian monsoon weather patterns by intercepting the rain-laden monsoon winds that sweep in from the south-west during late summer. The range runs north to south along the western edge of the Deccan Plateau, and separates the plateau from a narrow coastal plain, called Konkan, along the Arabian Sea. A total of thirty-nine areas in the Western Ghats, including national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and reserve forests, were designated as world heritage sites in 2012 – twenty in Kerala, ten in Karnataka, six in Tamil Nadu and four in Maharashtra.
The Nilgiris district is one of the 38 districts in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Nilgiri is the name given to a range of mountains spread across the borders among the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. All types of single use plastics are banned in Nilgiris district. The Nilgiri Hills are part of a larger mountain chain known as the Western Ghats. Their highest point is the mountain of Doddabetta, height 2,637 m. The district is contained mainly within the Nilgiri Mountains range. The administrative headquarters is located at Ooty.
The Cardamom Hills or Yela Mala are mountain range of southern India and part of the southern Western Ghats located in southeast Kerala and southwest Tamil Nadu in India. Their name comes from the cardamom spice grown in much of the hills' cool elevation, which also supports pepper and coffee. The Western Ghats and Periyar Sub-Cluster including the Cardamom Hills, are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
The Palani Hills are a mountain range in the southern Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The Palani Hills are an eastward extension of the Western Ghats ranges, which run parallel to the west coast of India. The Palani Hills adjoin the high Anamalai range (Kerala) on the west, and extend east into the plains of Tamil Nadu, covering an area of 2,068 square kilometres (798 sq mi). The highest part of the range is in the southwest, and reaches 1,800-2,500 metres elevation; the eastern extension of the range is made up of hills 1,000-1,500 m (3,281-4,921 ft) high.
Periyar is the longest river and the river with the largest discharge potential in the Indian state of Kerala. It is one of the few perennial rivers in the region and provides drinking water for several major towns. The Periyar is of utmost significance to the economy of Kerala. It generates a significant proportion of Kerala's electrical power via the Idukki Dam and flows along a region of industrial and commercial activity. The river also provides water for irrigation and domestic use throughout its course besides supporting a rich fishery. Due to these reasons, the river has been named the "Lifeline of Kerala". Kochi city, in the vicinity of the river mouth draws its water supply from Aluva, an upstream site sufficiently free of seawater intrusion. Twenty five percent of Kerala's industries are along the banks of river Periyar. These are mostly crowded within a stretch of 5 kilometres (3 mi) in the Eloor-Edayar region (Udhyogamandal), about 10 kilometres (6 mi) north of Kochi harbor.
Aanaimalai Tiger Reserve, earlier known as Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park (IGWLS&NP) and previously as Aanaimalai Wildlife Sanctuary, is a protected area located in the Anaimalai Hills of Pollachi and Valparai taluks of Coimbatore District and Udumalaipettai taluk in Tiruppur District, Tamil Nadu, India. The Tamil Nadu Environment and Forests Department by a notification dated 27 June 2007, declared an extent of 958.59 km2 that encompassed the erstwhile IGWLS&NP or Aanaimalai Wildlife Sanctuary, as Aanaimalai Tiger Reserve under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. According to the National Tiger Conservation Authority, the Reserve presently includes a core area of 958.59 km2 and buffer/peripheral area of 521.28 km2 forming a total area of 1479.87 km2.
The Mudumalai National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary also a declared tiger reserve, lies on the northwestern side of the Nilgiri Hills, in Nilgiri District, about 150 kilometres (93 mi) north-west of Coimbatore city in Tamil Nadu, India. It shares its boundaries with the states of Karnataka and Kerala. The sanctuary is divided into five ranges – Masinagudi, Thepakadu, Mudumalai, Kargudi and Nellakota.
Periyar National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary (PNP) is a protected area located in the districts of Idukki and Pathanamthitta in Kerala, India. It is notable as an elephant reserve and a tiger reserve. The protected area encompasses 925 km2 (357 sq mi) of which 305 km2 (118 sq mi) of the core zone was declared as the Periyar National Park in 1982. The park is a repository of rare, endemic and endangered flora and fauna and forms the major watershed of two important rivers of Kerala, the Periyar and the Pamba.
Pollachi is a town and a taluk headquarters in Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu state, India. Located about 40 km to the south of Coimbatore, it is the second largest town in the district after Coimbatore. Pollachi is a popular Marketplace for jaggery, vegetables and cattle. As of 2011, the town had a population of 90,180.
Dharmapuri is one of the 38 districts of Tamil Nadu, in India. It is the first district created in Tamil Nadu after the independence of India by splitting it from then-Salem district on 2 October 1965. The other major towns in the district are Harur, Palacode, Karimangalam, Nallampalli, Pennagaram and Pappireddipatti. Dharmapuri District is one of the major producers of mango in the state, fine quality granite is found in the district. It is also one of the main sericulture belts in the state. Around 30 percent of the district's area is under forest cover. Kaveri enters Tamil Nadu through this district.
Valparai is a Taluk and hill station in the Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu, India. It consists of Anamalai Tiger Reserve. It is located 7,102 feet (2,165 m) above sea level on the Anaimalai Hills range of the Western Ghats. The foothill starts exactly from Monkey Falls which is at a distance of 38 kilometres (24 mi) to Valparai. The route to Valparai from the foothills consists of 40 hairpin bends. The Kerala state border town of Malakkappara is at a distance of 26 miles from Valparai. While major portions of the land are owned by private tea companies, large forest areas continue to be out of bounds.
The Kalvarayan Hills are a major range of hills situated in the Eastern Ghats of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Along with the Pachaimalai, Alavaimalai, Javadi, and Shevaroy hills, they separate the Kaveri River basin to the south from the Palar River basin to the north. The hills range in height from 2000 feet to 3000 feet and extend over an area of 1095 square kilometres.
The Nilgiri Mountains form part of the Western Ghats in western Tamil Nadu, India. At least 24 of the Nilgiri Mountains' peaks are above 2,000 metres (6,600 ft), the highest peak being Doddabetta, at 2,637 metres (8,652 ft).
The Palani Hills Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park is a proposed protected area in Dindigul District, Tamil Nadu India. The park will be an upgrade and expansion of the 736.87 km2(PRO) Palani (Kodaikanal) Wildlife Sanctuary which was to be established in 2008. The park includes about 36% of the 2,068 square kilometres (798 sq mi) in the Palani Hills. The park is located between latitude 10°7' - 10°28' N and longitude 77°16' - 77°46' E. Central location is 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) east northeast of Silver Cascade Waterfall and 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) E X NE of Kodaikanal Lake.
Naduvalur is a village in Gangavalli in the Salem district of the state of Tamil Nadu, located in the north central part of the southernmost state of India.
Kookal is a Panchayat village of terrace farmers at the far western end of the Palani Hills in Kodaikanal block of Dindigul district, Tamil Nadu state, South India. It is 40 kilometres (25 mi) from Kodaikanal at: 10°17′9″N77°21′48″E. Elevation is 1,890 metres (6,200 ft). Kookal is notable for the high biodiversity of the area.
Chitteri, also known as Sitheri hills, are one of the segments of Eastern Ghats of Tamil Nadu, spread over an area of 654.52 km² within the geographical limit of 78°15’−78°45’E longitude and 11°44’−12°08’N latitude. The hill harbour various vegetation types such as the evergreen, the semi-evergreen, the riparian, the dry mixed deciduous, the dry deciduous scrub and the southern thorn scrub forests. The minimum and maximum temperature of the area is 19 °C and 40 °C respectively. The annual rainfall varies from 620 to 900 mm and it received both northeast and southwest monsoons. The hills form a compact block consisting of several hill ranges, and contain tangled ridges and ravines running in the northeast and southwest directions, enclosing many narrow valleys (rivers), viz. Kallar, Varattar, Kambalai and Anaimaduvu. Topographically, the area is undulating with an altitude varying from 240 to 1266 m. The rocks on Chitteri hills are chiefly gneisses/granitic in composition. Soil is generally shallow and reddish-loam, varying in fertility and often mixed with gravel and boulders. Black soils are seldom found in the forests.
Vellar is a river which originates in the Shevaroy Hills and runs through the districts of Salem, Perambalur and Cuddalore in the northern part of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu before draining into the Bay of Bengal near Parangipettai.
Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve is a protected area and tiger reserve in the Eastern Ghats in the Erode District of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. First various geographical tracts of the Sathyamangalam forests were declared reserve forests. Patches of Sandalwood Reserves were notified under the Indian Forests Act, 1927. The Sathyamangalam Forest Division is part of the Bramhagiri-Nilgiris-Eastern Ghats Elephant Reserve notified in 2003. In 2008, part of the Sathyamangalam Forest Division was declared as a wildlife sanctuary and enlarged in 2011, it covers a forest area of 1,411.6 km2 (545.0 sq mi). In 2013, with an area of 1408.6 Sq. Km. of the erstwhile sanctuary was notified as Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve, the fourth tiger reserve in the state of Tamil Nadu as a part of Project Tiger and is the third largest tiger reserve in Tamil Nadu.
Pakkamalai is a mountain and forest reserve in Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu, located 45 km southwest of Gingee.
