Pakkamalai is a mountain and forest reserve in

Villupuram district Viluppuram, Villupuram or Vizhuppuram is one of the 38 districts that make up the state of Tamil Nadu, India. It was founded on 30 September 1993, prior to which it was part of the Cuddalore district. Vizhuppuram district lies in the way of the ...

of Tamil Nadu, located 45 km southwest of

Gingee Gingee, also known as Senji or Jinji and originally called Singapuri, is a panchayat town in Viluppuram district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Gingee is located between three hills covering a perimeter of 3 km, and lies west of the Sa ...

Geography

Pakkamalai is steep-sided plateau that reaches an elevation of over 500 meters. In addition to being a forest reserve, Pakkamalai is a sacred forest. There is a shrine to the Goddess

Durga Durga ( sa, दुर्गा, ) is a major Hindu goddess, worshipped as a principal aspect of the mother goddess Mahadevi. She is associated with protection, strength, motherhood, destruction, and wars. Durga's legend centres around co ...

on one of the peaks, and a temple to Perumal (Vishnu) at mid-elevation.

Climate

Maximum temperature ranges from 30° to 36 °C in the summer, and 24 °C during the winter months. Mean annual rainfall is 700 mm.

Ecology

Pakkamalai forest reserve covers an area of 22.38 km², and the mountain's dry forests contain a mix of species characteristic of the coastal dry evergreen forests which lie to the east, and the dry deciduous forests that lie to the west in the

Eastern Ghats The Eastern Ghats are a discontinuous range of mountains along India's eastern coast. The Eastern Ghats pass through Odisha, Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu in the south passing some parts of Karnataka as well as Telangana. They are eroded and cut ...

. Typical dry evergreen species in the forests include ''

Atalantia monophylla ''Atalantia monophylla'' is a species of plants in the family Rutaceae. They are woody climbers naturally found in tropical regions. Several species in the genus ''Atalantia monophylla'' have been used in traditional medicine, such as the Ayur ...

Acacia intsia ''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus na ...

, Combretum albidum,

Dichrostachys cinerea ''Dichrostachys cinerea'', known as sicklebush, Bell mimosa, Chinese lantern tree or Kalahari Christmas tree (South Africa), is a legume of the genus ''Dichrostachys'' in the family Fabaceae. Other common names include omubambanjobe (Tooro Ugan ...

'', and '' Psydrax dicoccos'', and typical dry deciduous species include ''

Cochlospermum religiosum ''Cochlospermum religiosum'' is a flowering plant from the tropical region of Southeast Asia and the Indian Subcontinent. It is a small tree growing to a height of usually found in dry deciduous forests. The name ''religiosum'' derives from the ...

, Deccania pubescens,

Garuga pinnata ''Garuga pinnata'' is a deciduous tree species from the family Burseraceae. It occurs in Asia: from the Indian sub-continent, southern China and Indo-China; in Vietnam it may be called ''dầu heo''. No subspecies are listed in the Catalogue of ...

Hildegardia populifolia ''Hildegardia populifolia'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae. It is found only in the Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in India. It is threatened by habitat loss; just about 20 trees are known to exist on the ...

Ochna lanceolata ''Ochna lanceolata'' is a species of plant in the family Ochnaceae. It is native to India and Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit- ...

'', and '' Premna tomentosa''. It is also home to several endemic and limited-range species. ''Hubera senjiana'', a rare species of tree, is found only on Pakkamalai, growing in dry rocky soils along forest fringes between 200–300 metres elevation in association with ''Phyllanthus polyphyllus'', ''Stenosiphonium russellianum'', and ''Justicia beddomei''. The surrounding lowlands are in the

Deccan thorn scrub forests The Deccan thorn scrub forests are a xeric shrubland ecoregion of south India and northern Sri Lanka. Historically this area was covered by tropical dry deciduous forest, but this only remains in isolated fragments. The vegetation now consi ...

ecoregion. Pakkamalai is home to the easternmost population of the

grizzled giant squirrel The grizzled giant squirrel (''Ratufa macroura'') is a large tree squirrel in the genus '' Ratufa'' found in the highlands of the Central and Uva provinces of Sri Lanka, and in patches of riparian forest along the Kaveri River and in the hill ...

''(Ratufa macroura)''. It was previously known only in the Western Ghats and the

Palani Hills The Palani Hills are a mountain range in the southern Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The Palani Hills are an eastward extension of the Western Ghats ranges, which run parallel to the west coast of India. The Palani Hills adjoin the hi ...

. In 2019, the critically endangered blue tarantula '' Poecilotheria metallica'', known as the peacock parachute spider or Gooty tarantula, was discovered living in the mountains.Kothandapani Raman, Sivangnanaboopathidoss Vimalraj, Bawa Mothilal Krishnakumar, Natesan Balachandran, and Abhishek Tomar (2019). "Range extension of the Gooty Tarantula Poecilotheria metallica (Araneae: Theraphosidae) in the Eastern Ghats of Tamil Nadu, India". ''Journal of Threatened Taxa'', 26 August 2019 11(10): 14373–14376. www.threatenedtaxa.org.

References

{{coord, 12, 10, 55, N, 79, 17, 23, E, display=title Hills of Tamil Nadu Protected areas of Tamil Nadu Sacred groves of India Viluppuram district