Valparai
is a Municipality in Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu. Valparai is
located 3,500 feet above sea level on the Anaimalai Hills range of the
Western Ghats.
Though popularly
known as Cherrapunji of South India, Valparai remains somewhat
untouched. Owned mostly by private tea companies, a large part of the
area is out of bounds for tourists. Interestingly, the Govt. of Tamil
Nadu with the assistance of the Govt. of India has taken initiatives to
promote tourism and develop infrastructure such as hotels, amusement
parks etc to attract visitors.
Valparai has a concentration of Tea and Coffee estates. Most of the people in Valparai work in these estates. Valparai can be accessed either from Pollachi or from Chalakudy, Kerala located on the western side of Anaimalai Hills Range. The climate is suitable for cultivation of Tea, Coffee, Cardamom and Cincona.
Valparai is one of the highest mid elevation hill stations in the country. The tea plantations are surrounded by evergreen forest. The region is also a rich elephant tract and is known to have many leopards.
The Valparai range
is also the habitat the Nilgiri Tahr, an endemic wild goat. These wild
mountain goats inhabit the high ranges and prefer open terrain, cliffs
and grass-covered hills, a habitat largely confined to altitudes from
1200 to 2600m. Their territory extended far and wide all along these
hills in the past, but, because of hunting and large-scale habitat
destruction, they now exist only in a few isolated sites like the
Anaimalai Hills.
The human-elephant
conflict here is a delicate issue. The tea plantations are a hindrance
to the movement of wildlife, particularly elephants who walk large
distances to reach water bodies and feeding areas.