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Indira Gandhi National Park Travel Guide

Travel to Indira Gandhi National Park -

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Covering 958 sq km Indira Gandhi National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary is a haven for rare and endangered wildlife. Formerly known as the Anamalai Wildlife Sanctuary it lies in the Coimbatore District of Tamil Nadu and is located at the southern part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve in the Anamalai Hills. The park is separated from the Nilgiri Hills by the Palghat Gap to the north and is ajoined the Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala to the west and to the Eravikulam National Park in Kerala, and Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary to its south.

The main place of interest for visitors is via Top Slip which sits at 740m.

Designated an Indo-Malayan Malabar Rainforest and Tropical Humid Biome the park comprises primarily of wet evergreen, sub-tropical evergreen, moist deciduous, dry deciduous, semi-evergreen and montane-shola grasslands. The landscape is thickly wooded with hills, plateaus, valleys and rolling grasslands all between an altitude range of 340m to 2,510m; annual rainfall amounts to between 800mm and 4500mm woth it bearing the brunt of both southwest and northeast monsoons.

The area is drained by several permanent and seasonal river systems such as the Kallar and Sholaiar rivers and contains man-made reservoirs such as Aliar and Thirumurthy.

Attractions in Indira Gandhi National Park

Top Slip's wonderful rainforest hold a number of south Indian endemic birds. These include the Wynaad laughing thrush, white-bellied treepie, Malabar trogon, white-bellied blue flycatcher and black-throated munia are best seen here. other key birds include a large breeding population of great hornbills, Malabar grey hornbill, red spurfowl, grey junglefowl, Malabar parakeet, heart-spotted woodpecker, oriental bay owl, mountain imperial pigeon, Indian swiftlet, brown-backed needletail, rufous babbler, yellow-browed bulbul, crimson-backed sunbird, greater racket tailed drongo, great eared nightjar and large-billed warbler. Many of these birds can be seen on the 1km track from the edge of Karian Shola to the watchtower overlooking a reservoir.

Other than birds the park is home to one of the world's rarest primates, the lion-tailed macaque. Top Slip also has a large concentration of the endemic Nilgiri langur and the lucky can spot the Indian chevrotain and the rare brown mongoose. Asian elephants are common.