Tour to Visit Wildlife Sanctuaries Munnar ?

Plaining a tour to Wildlife Sanctuaries in Munnar?

We T and U Leisure Hotel Arrange Facilities For that. In T and U Guests may opt to visit many of the wildlife parks in the area filled with a fascinating variety of flora and fauna. T and U conducts both day and night safaris to these parks. These protected areas are especially known for several threatened and endemic species including the nilagiri thar, the grizzled giant squirrel, the nilagiri wood pigeon, elephants, gaur, the nilagiri langur and sambar deer.

The Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary

Periyar National Park is a sanctuary famous for its dense evergreen, semi-evergreen, moist deciduous forests and savanna grass lands. The park is home to herds of elephants, sambar deer, tigers, gaur, lion-tailed macaques and nilagiri langurs. The most attractive feature of Periyar is the herds of wild elephants that gather around the artificial lake formed by the Mullaiperiyar Dam across the Periyar River. The Thekkady region around the park is a heaven for natural spices such as black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon and clove.

Kurinjimala Sanctuary

The sanctuary ensures the long-term protection of the unique biodiversity of the area, especially Strobilanthes Kunthiana (the Nilakurinji flower) and its habitat around Kottakamboor and Vattavada villages.

Eravikulam National Park

T & U Leisure Hotel Best family hotels in munnarThe park accommodates almost half of the world’s population of a rare species of mountain goat named the Nilagiri Thar. The highest peak in South India, Anaimudi (2695m) is located in the southern part of the park is an ideal spot for trekking. The Anamalai sub-cluster, including all of Eravikulam National Park, is under consideration by the UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

Annaimudi Shola National Park

This is a protected area composed of Mannavan, Idiyara and Pullardi Shola forests.The Anamudi Shola National Park provides valuable contiguous wildlife habitat connectivity to the other wildlife parks that surround this protected area. This national park forms part of the Anamalai sub-cluster, which was recently nominated for consideration for World Heritage Site status under UNESCO's World Heritage Programme.

 

Pampadum Shola National Park

The smallest national park in Kerala adjoins the Allinagaram Reserved Forest within the proposed Palani Hills Wildlife Sanctuary and protects a moderate amount of montane evergreen shola forest. The evergreen trees and the water sources are the habitat of various birds and animals. The keystone species here is the highly elusive and endangered, endemic small carnivore the nilagiri marten. Leopards and Indian wild dogs are sometimes sighted at dusk and dawn. Substantial numbers of tigers also live in the park. Species of birds found here include the nilagiri wood pigeon, white bellied short wing, scaly breasted lorikeet, blue rock thrush, blue capped rock thrush, nilagiri flycatcher, black and orange flycatchers. Studies have been made on various rare medicinal plants in the park and the unique richness of uncontaminated ‘ humus’.

Budget Resort in Munnar Top Restaurants in Munnar

Chinar Wildlife Sanctuary

The Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary is located in the rain shadow region of Western Ghats and is home to a large number of plants and animals. Due to the significant variation in altitude and rainfall, Chinnar has a wide array of habitat types like deciduous forests, dry thorn scrub, riparian forests, shoals and grassland containing about 1000 species of flowering plants and a repository of medicinal plants. The sanctuary has recorded the largest number of reptilian fauna in Kerala including the mugger crocodile. With 225 recorded species of birds, it is one of the richest areas of south India in avian diversity. The riverine forests support a healthy population of the endangered grizzled giant squirrel, the pride of Chinnar. The famous and extremely rare white bison has been recently reported. Other important mammals found are elephant, tiger, leopard, guar, sambhar, spotted deer, nilagiri thar, common langur, bonnet macaque. The phenomenon of butterfly migration occurs in the period between the monsoons. A watchtower in the sanctuary offers an unbelievably beautiful view of the sanctuary- vast expanses of green forests extending to the nearby state of Tamil Nadu and far away mountains. The sanctuary, a trekker’s paradise, is situated about 60 km away from Munnar.

             Two groups of tribes, Muthuvans and Hill Pulayas, inhabit the sanctuary in 11 hamlets or ‘Kudies’. The sanctuary provides livelihood options for the tribes and helps in maintaining their cultural heritage. Archeologically significant megalithic burial sites consisting of dolmens and cysts are found near some settlements. With the launching of the eco development program, successful efforts have been made for evolving a model of biodiversity conservation in a human dominated landscape.

Thattekkad Bird Sanctuary

T & U Leisure Hotel Best family hotels in munnarThe Thattekkad Bird Sanctuary is a birder’s paradise with over 140 species including 11 endemics having been spotted over a visit. The vegetation in the sanctuary best for birding consists of tropical evergreen forest, though the evergreen vegetation can also make spotting difficult. Elevations around Thattekkad are over 1500 meters lower than in Munnar, the local temperatures are higher and birds became more active. The vegetation changes in this area over relatively short distances and with slight changes in elevation. The sanctuary also contains a large marsh where whiskered tern, bronze-winged jacana and noisy flocks of lesser whistling ducks can be spotted. In the dry season, many of the trees drop their leaves, making it relatively easy to spot the birds. 

     

            Cuckoos and drongos are the most common species encountered besides green bee-eaters, blue-tailed bee-eaters, mottled wood and Asian darters, little cormorants, shirka, Blyth’s pipit, ashy wood swallow, common iora, black-hooded oriole, greater racket-tailed drongo, black drongo, bronze drongo, rufus treepie, grey-bellied cuckoo, greater coucal, common hawk cuckoo, Asian koel, yellow-billed babbler, thick-billed warbler, lesser yellow nape, Rufus woodpecker, brown-capped pygmy woodpecker, and streak-throated woodpecker, the Malabar grey hornbill and the white-bellied blue flycatcher. Other species often spotted include: collared scops owl, Indian cuckoo, greater flameback, jungle owlet, Malabar woodshrike, crested serpent eagle, rusty-tailed flycatcher, blue-throated flycatcher, brown-breasted flycatcher, orange-headed thrush, black–naped oriole, eurasian golden oriole, large cuckooshirke, white-rumped needle tail, flame-throated bulbul, heart-spotted woodpecker, small minivet, rose-winged parakeet, Asian paradise-flycatcher and the pale-billed flower pecker, India’s smallest bird.

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