National Parks and Sanctuaries
	Andamans and Nicobars
	Bandavgarh National Park
	Bandipura Tiger Reserve
	Bardia National Park
	Chitwan National Park
	Corbett Tiger Reserve
	Dachigam National Park
	Great Himalayan National Park
	Gir National Park & Wildlife Sanctuary
	Anamalais (Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary)
	Kanha National Park
	Kaziranga National Park
	Kodaikanal
	Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary
	Nagarahole (Rajiv Gandhi National Park)
	Periyar Tiger Reserve
	Ranthambore National Park
	Sunderbans

Fauna - Quick Links
Barasingha	Leopard
Bonnet tailed Macaque	Lion
Chital	Lion tailed Macaque
Common Langur	Nilgiri Langur
Dhole	Rhesus Macaque
Gaur	Sambar
Gharial	Sloth Bear
Hangul	Tiger
Hog Deer	Wild Boar
Wolf	Estuarine
Muntjac	Mugger
Rhino

Abstract

The Palnis (or Pulneys) are a north-eastern spur of the Western Ghat range south of the Palghat Gap all of which fall within the western border of Tamil Nadu State, southern India. These hills rise steeply from the plains at about 300 m to over 2000 meters.

Once a prime wilderness of jungle, grassland and shoal, the Palnis were opened up to commercial exploitation with the arrival of the British in the mid-19th Century. The open grassland of the upper reaches began to be planted with exotic monocultures of eucalyptus, wattle and pine and the ecology of the Palnis was altered forever.

The rich biotic wealth of the Palnis has long been recognized although overshadowed by the commercial compulsions that permeated the imperial Raj mindset. In 1906 the first proper Reserve Forest was created and presently the notification of a 736 sq. kms wildlife sanctuary (out of a total area of 2068 sq. kms.) is awaited.

The earliest known human inhabitants of these hills were an enigmatic megalithic people who have left their mark in the form of dolmens on the slopes of the middle and lower Palni Hills. These people were followed by tribal groups known as the Paliyans and the Puliyans and finally by British colonists, American missionaries and Indians from the plains.

Despite the prevalence of exotic flora the Palnis are home to a variety of animals such as gaur, sambar, leopard, wild dog, muntjac and several smaller mammals. The birdlife is also abundant comprising of over 200 species and the area is particularly rich in reptiles and amphibians several of which are endemic like the uropeltid snakes. The insect life is also extremely rich. Although the original shoal forests have been drastically reduced in extent, their importance in the local ecosystem and as important gene banks have been recognized and protection is now stringent.

The Palnis are amongst the most enjoyable and instructive places for the outdoorsman to visit in southern India.

Situated on the middle-western border of Tamil Nadu, the Palni Hills are an East-west running off shoot of the Western Ghats which, in their highest areas meet the political borders of Kerala State east of Munnar.

The earliest known human inhabitants of the Palni Hills were apparently a stone-lifting race whose relics transport us back into the mists of unrecorded history perhaps thousands of years before Christ. These people built shelters and enclosures of great slabs of rock in the lower elevations of the Palnis. Some of these cromlechs or dolmens were arranged in circles on the hill-slopes and some had underground chambers which may have been tombs. Interestingly these dolmens were erected only in the Middle and Lower Palnis and are absent in the upper areas. Many have been damaged over the course of time, while large numbers were broken up and used for the construction of Law's Ghat Road when it was being laid in the early years of the 1900's. A few structures still remain amidst the engulfing jungle, mute testimonials to the skills of a little-known people that inhabited these hills in a dim and distant past.

From this megalithic period we come to the era of the Paliyan and Puliyan tribals-aboriginal hunter-gatherers who inhabited the hills for millennia. Colonies of these tribals still inhabit the Lower Palnis, though modern influences have changed their life-style and outlook.

The first recorded visit of a European to the Palnis was that of Lieutenant Ward, an English officer who was sent by Government to survey the "Vurragherry" mountains (the Sanskrit name for the Palnis was Varahagiri) in 1821. In 1845 American missionaries from Madurai explored the summit of that part of the massif directly overlooking the Periyakulam district and built two shacks at the edge of a belt of dense shola growing on the eastern slopes of a marshy basin. Thus the settlement of Kodaikanal was born. As Western occupation gradually expanded in that locality, the Forest Department of the erstwhile British Government took charge of Kodaikanal, and later made 210 sq. miles of the Palnis a forest reserve. As far back as 1870 a plantation of blue gum (eucalyptus) and Australian blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon) was created "in order to provide Kodaikanal with firewood and save from destruction the fine shola after which it is named." These were the beginnings of the transformation of the plateau into its present temperate woodland character.

By the turn of the century, the jungle and wilderness with its wild denizens were pushed further and further back to the far end of the range. However, in 1906 four Forest ranges of the Upper Palnis were consolidated and gazetted by the British Government as a single Reserve Forest, namely Ampthill Downs R.F. The word "Downs" suggests that the bulk of the reserve consisted of grassland in those days. Ampthill Downs today totals 14,570 hectares (36,000 acres) of forest land and is the largest Reserve Forest division in the whole of the Palni Hills. The core of the proposed Kodaikanal Wildlife Sanctuary awaiting government notification would be located within the Downs.

Despite the 1906 notification conversion of habitat and hunting of wildlife continued unabated either as official policy or illegally until the late 1980's when regulations began to be applied strictly partly as a response to lobbying by conservationists and also on account of environmental awareness seeping into the body politic. Today, bison sightings are becoming increasingly frequent even on the outskirts of Kodaikanal township.

Present day Forest Department policy is to protect what little evergreen plateau forests remain and there is a move to declare 736 sq. kms. of the Palnis-which also include extensive tracts of wattle, eucalyptus and pine-as a wildlife reserve. The proposal is pending clearance.

Area:736 sq. kms
Latitude: 10°12’ - 10°15’N
Longitude: 77°26’ - 77°33’E
Altitude: Varies. Vandaravu peak by the Kerala border is the highest point, at 2,550 m. above m.s.l., and the base of the foot-hills averages about 360 m. above m.s.l.

The Lower Palnis have largely been converted into plantations of coffee, cardamon and fruit orchards such as orange, banana, jack etc., with the original forest vegetation confined to patches and pockets. At the lowest levels the natural vegetation consists of scrub jungle which remains intact. Over much of the Palni plateau the natural vegetation was primarily short-grass montane savannah, often dotted with small trees of rhododendron interspersed with forest patches largely restricted to sheltered valleys on well-drained soils. Since the opening up of the Palni Hills in the 1850's large areas of the plateau have been planted with exotic 'commercial' mono-cultures consisting of species such as eucalyptus and wattle are maintained by the Forest Department to meet the needs of the pulp wood and leather tanning industries. Today many of the remaining tracts of savannah are being ploughed for vegetable cultivation.

The surviving natural evergreen forests of the upper elevations of the Palnis are divided into two main types-ridge forests and sholas. Both types survive only in small patches on the plateau and ridge forests are particularly scarce. Although forest disappearance seems to have been a long-term process, in action for thousands of years, a certain amount of shola has been felled within recent times.

Three distinct altitudinally delineated bands of vegetation are found in the Lower Palnis. From 300 m. at the base of the foot-hills up to about 800 m. where the thorn scrub jungle of the lower elevations gives way to small trees such as Cochlospermum and Givotia. From 800 m. the dry deciduous belt begins. The trees found here are Alstonia, Pterocarpus, Terminalia etc. From 1300 to 1700 m. dry evergreen forests with Alseodaphne, Alstonia, Celtis, Dimocarpus and others are found. A savannah zone of tall grasses may be noted towards the higher reaches of this tier.

The original vegetation of the undulating plateau used to be short grass downs interspersed with shola in the folds and valleys. At present almost all the grasslands of this altitude level have been replaced by temperate exotic tree cover such as wattle (Acacia mearnsii), blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus) and pine (Pinus patula), with the grasslands restricted to marshy valleys. The last vestige of the original downs in all their pristine splendour can be seen in the extensive rolling meadows by Kookal Cliffs.

Sholas are isolated patches of dense jungle, greatly varied in species composition and size. The trees are characteristically stunted in height compared to the rain forest specimens found at lower elevations with the canopy generally at about 15 metres above ground level. Sholas usually have streams running through them and a typical patch would contain dominant genera of trees such as Ilex (3), Elaeocarpus (3), Syzygium (3), Turpinia, Meliosma (2) and Michelia. The figure in brackets indicates the number of species in each genus. Two species of the giant tree-fern Cyathea with umbrella-like foliage also deserve special mention as they are peculiar to the montane rain forests of the Western Ghats.

There are about 200 species of birds in the Palnis, many of them being endemic to the Western Ghats. Among the raptors common to these hills are the Black Eagle (Ictinaetus malayensis), Crested Serpent Eagle (Spilornis cheela) and Great Horned Owl (Bubo bubo bengalensis). Different altitudes support different avifauna with species such as Golden Orioles (Oriolus oriolus kundoo), Purple-rumped Sunbirds (Nectarinia zeylonica), Paradise Flycatchers(Terpsiphone paradisi), Bee-eaters (Merops sp.)and so on being found at the lower elevations.

Recently, a student group out on a field visit recorded the following species during the course of a day of bird-watching in the Kookal region of the Upper Palnis:

Best time to visit
Pleasant through most of the year. January, February and March are the driest months, hence most suitable for outdoor activity. Mid October to mid December is the wettest period when there are likely to be rainy, misty, cold and damp conditions for prolonged periods of time.

How to get there
Air: Coimbatore and Madurai in Tamil Nadu State.
Rail: The nearest rail station to Kodaikanal is Kodai Road, which is connected with Madras.
Road: Kodaikanal town is situated at 2,100 metres altitude in the Upper Palnis. Buses and taxis are available from Madurai (120 kms.), Coimbatore (180 kms.) and Kodai Road (80 kms.).

Accomodation
Forest rest houses with nominal tariffs at Berijam Lake, Poombarai and other outposts. The facilities are spartan, and no catering services are available.


Whom to contact
District Forest Officer,
Kodaikanal Forest Office,
Kodaikanal,
Tamil Nadu 624 101, India.
Phone: 91-4542-40287

Private jungle lodge
Click here to go to Bison Wells