Eravikulam National Park.

About this place

Eravikulam National Park is the high grassland park above Munnar, in Idukki, kept mainly for the Nilgiri tahr. The tahr is an endangered mountain goat of the southern Western Ghats, and this park is its best-known home. Visitors come to see the animals on the open slopes of the Rajamala tourism zone, where they often graze near the walking path. A sighting is still chance, not a promise. The rest of the park is wild plateau and shola forest, and it is not a place to drive around in a private car. The public visit uses the park’s own bus from the entrance up to Rajamala, and from there people walk the set path. That short, managed outing is the feature most travellers mean when they say they are going to Eravikulam.

The land itself is the other feature. This is high country, cold compared with the Kerala coast, with rolling grass, dark pockets of shola, and a wide view down toward the tea estates. Shola is the stunted evergreen forest that sits in the folds of these hills, wet and mossy, while the tahr prefers the open grass and rock beside it. That mix is why the walk feels different from a lowland sanctuary, where the animals stay inside thick cover. The Nilgiri tahr is a stocky wild goat, at home on steep grass, and the Rajamala animals are used to people on the path, which is why photographs here are often closer than in a forest hide. A visit still follows park rules: stay on the path, do not chase an animal for a picture, and treat a sighting as luck. Anamudi, the highest peak in the Western Ghats south of the Himalaya, rises inside the park, but the ordinary ticket does not include a climb to the summit. The park is also known for neelakurinji, the shrub that flowers after a long gap of years, so a visit does not mean the hills will be in bloom. When the park reopened in April 2026 after the calving closure, the forest department added a rainbow viewpoint, a three-level photo point near the kurinji garden, and a medicinal garden with more than 200 plant species. Those are lookout and garden stops inside the visitor area, not a separate tour. Early morning is the usual time people hope to see tahr before the path fills, and the light on the grass is clearer then.

Tickets are required, and the park’s own booking page lists separate rates for Indian adults, foreign visitors, and cameras. On that page the entry window is 8 am to 2 pm, and the park is closed through February and March so the tahr can calve without crowds. Later notices have sometimes given a longer afternoon window, so the last entry time and the fee should be checked on the official booking page before travel. Munnar is the town for the night, about a short drive from the entrance, with hotels and lodges rather than stay inside the park. The visit suits families, wildlife watchers, and anyone already in Munnar who wants one structured outing into the high hills. It is a poor fit for someone expecting a jeep safari across the whole reserve, a guaranteed animal, or a trek to Anamudi on the day ticket. For a Nilgiri tahr sighting in Kerala, a Rajamala walk, or a national park day from Munnar, Eravikulam is the grassland park set aside for that goat and for the shola country around it.

🚆 Nearest Railway: Aluva Railway Station (~121 km)

✈️ Airport: Cochin International Airport (~118 km)

🚌 Bus: Munnar KSRTC Bus Stand (~14 km)

🏨 Stay: Tea County; East End Hotel; Abad Whispering Winds

✅ Notes: The public visit is the Rajamala zone. A park bus runs from the entrance, and private cars do not tour the core. The booking page lists entry from 8 am to 2 pm and a February–March closure for tahr calving. Confirm the current fee and the last entry time on the official page. Coimbatore airport is about 155 km by road. Enquiries: Wildlife Warden, Munnar, 04865 231587.