Mukurthi Peak is one of the highest peaks in the Western Ghats, situated on the border of

Udagamandalam Ooty (), officially known as Udhagamandalam (also known as Ootacamund (); abbreviated as Udhagai), is a city and a municipality in the Nilgiris district of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located north west of Coimbatore and sou ...

taluk,

Nilgiris The Nilgiri Mountains form part of the Western Ghats in northwestern Tamil Nadu, Southern Karnataka, and eastern Kerala in India. They are located at the trijunction of three states and connect the Western Ghats with the Eastern Ghats. At le ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

Nilambur Nilambur is a major town, a municipality and a Taluk in the Malappuram district of the Indian state of Kerala. It is located close to the Nilgiris range of the Western Ghats on the banks of the Chaliyar River. This place is also known as 'Teak ...

taluk,

Malappuram Malappuram (also Malapuram) () is a city in the Indian state of Kerala, spread over an area of including the surrounding suburban areas. The first municipality in the district formed in 1970, Malappuram serves as the administrative headquarter ...

, and

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

in India. It reaches an altitude of 2,554 m (8,379ft), and is the fifth-highest peak in South India.

Geography

The western slope of the hill sits astride the Kerala/Tamil Nadu border. It has many cliffs ranging from 500 m to 2,500 m. Part of Mukurthi is situated within Malappuram district, which is the third-highest point in Kerala, after Anaimudi (2,696 m) and Meeshapulimala (2,651 m). The peak can only be accessed through Nilgiri district. The Mukurthi peak is said to resemble a "pointed nose." Mukurthi peak is part of

Mukurthi National Park Mukurthi National Park (MNP) is a protected area located in the western corner of the Nilgiris Plateau west of Ootacamund hill station in the northwest corner of Tamil Nadu state in the Western Ghats mountain range of South India. The park w ...

(Nilgiri Tahr National Park), in the

Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve is a biosphere reserve in the Nilgiri mountains of the Western Ghats in South India. It is the largest protected forest area in India, spreading across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. It includes the protected ar ...

. Mukurthi is covered with

shola Sholas are the local name for patches of stunted tropical montane forest found in valleys amid rolling grassland in the higher montane regions of South India, largely in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamilnadu. These patches of shola forest are foun ...

(patches of stunted tropical montane forest (found in valleys amid rolling grassland in the higher montane regions of South India), including pine, grasslands and shrublands. Its habitat is favorable for

Asian elephants The Asian elephant (''Elephas maximus''), also known as the Asiatic elephant, is the only living species of the genus '' Elephas'' and is distributed throughout the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, from India in the west, Nepal in the n ...

, tigers, and

Nilgiri Tahr The Nilgiri tahr (''Nilgiritragus hylocrius'') is an ungulate that is endemic to the Nilgiri Hills and the southern portion of the Western and Eastern Ghats in the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala in southern India. It is the state animal of Tami ...

. Mukurthi National Park is situated between the

Mudumalai National Park Mudumalai National Park is a national park in the Nilgiri Mountains in Tamil Nadu, south India. It covers at an elevation range of in the Nilgiri District and shares boundaries with the states of Karnataka and Kerala. A part of this area ha ...

and the

Silent Valley National Park Silent Valley National Park is a national park in Kerala, India. It is located in the Nilgiri hills, has a core area of , which is surrounded by a buffer zone of . This national park has some rare species of flora and fauna. This area was explo ...

Ooty Ooty (), officially known as Udhagamandalam (also known as Ootacamund (); abbreviated as Udhagai), is a city and a municipality in the Nilgiris district of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located north west of Coimbatore and so ...

is the nearest town (30 km away). Pichalbetta (2,544 m) and Nilgiri hill are the most prominent peaks adjacent to this area, and Mukurthi Dam is also nearby.

Surroundings

Many streams drain into Bhavani River. Among the peaks inside the National Park, the highest are Kolaribetta (2,630m), together with Mukurthi Peak (2,556m) and Nilgiri Peak (2,477m. Southwest of Mukurthi lies

, and to its west the land falls steeply to 2,000 m in the Amarabalam Forest. The area under monoculture forestry in Mukurthi is comparatively less than Nilgiris district, and consists mainly of ''

Acacia mearnsii ''Acacia mearnsii'', commonly known as black wattle, late black wattle or green wattle, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is usually an erect tree with smooth bark, bipinnate lea ...

'', ''Eucalyptus'' ''globulus'' and ''

Pinus patula ''Pinus patula'', commonly known as patula pine, spreading-leaved pine, or Mexican weeping pine, and in Spanish as ''pino patula'' or ''pino llorón'', (''patula'' Latin = “spreading”) is a tree native to the highlands of Mexico. It grows f ...

''. The vegetation is either Southern Montane Wet Temperate Forest (shola), grassland and plantation. Pristine shola patches can be seen throughout the park, generally at the heads of streams in the folds of converging slopes. These forests support a variety of flora and fauna. This IBA site is among the richest regions of plant biodiversity, with many endemic orchids and other plant groups. Grasslands in Mukurthi are common and form a mosaic with shola. They are a mixture of ''Chrysopogon'', ''Ischaemum'', ''Dicanthium'', ''Andropogon'', Eragrostis and ''Panicum'' species. The ecological status of these grasslands is debated.

Wildlife

Mukurthi hosts many species of wildlife: * Nilgiris tahr * Sambar deer *

Barking deer Barking may refer to: Places * Barking, London, a town in East London, England ** London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, a local government district covering the town of Barking ** Municipal Borough of Barking, a historical local government dist ...

* Nilgiris marten * Otter *

Jungle Cat The jungle cat (''Felis chaus''), also called reed cat, swamp cat and jungle lynx, is a medium-sized cat native to the Middle East, the Caucasus, South and Southeast Asia and southern China. It inhabits foremost wetlands like swamps, littoral ...

Jackal Jackals are medium-sized canids native to Africa and Eurasia. While the word "jackal" has historically been used for many canines of the subtribe canina, in modern use it most commonly refers to three species: the closely related black-backed ...

* Laughing thrushes * Whistling thrushes *

Woodcock The woodcocks are a group of seven or eight very similar living species of wading birds in the genus ''Scolopax''. The genus name is Latin for a snipe or woodcock, and until around 1800 was used to refer to a variety of waders. The English name ...

* Wood pigeon *

Black eagle The black eagle (''Ictinaetus malaiensis'') is a bird of prey. Like all eagles, it is in the family Accipitridae, and is the only member of the genus ''Ictinaetus''. They soar over forests in the hilly regions of tropical and subtropical South ...

* Blue Admiral * Indian Red Admiral * Indian Cabbage white

References

Mountains of the Western Ghats Two-thousanders of Asia {{TamilNadu-geo-stub