Indira Gandhi Sanctuary

Indira Gandhi Sanctuary is a famous national park and wildlife sanctuary located in the Anaimalai Hills of Pollachi, Valparai and Udumalpet taluks of Coimbatore District, Tamil Nadu state, South India. It is a famous protected area named after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who visited the park on October 7, 1961. This famous wildlife sanctuary national park is also under consideration by UNESCO as part of the Western Ghats World Heritage Site.

The Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary & National Park is home to a wide variety of rich flora and fauna. There are about 2000 (two thousands) different species of plants of which about 400 (four hundred) species are of major medicinal significance. The vegetation of this wildlife sanctuary comprises of wet evergreen forest and semi-evergreen forest, montane shola-grassland, moist deciduous, dry deciduous, thorn forests and marshes.

Major attractions of India Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary National Park are endangered Bengal tigers, Indian wild dogs, Indian elephants, Nilgiri tahr, lion-tailed macaque, Indian leopards, Indian pangolins, leopard cats, jungle cats, spotted deer, barking deer, mouse deer, common langurs, Nilgiri langurs, Asian palm civets, small Indian civets, vulnerable Brown Mongoose, Gaur, Malabar spiny dormouse, rusty-spotted cat, sambar Deer, sloth bear, smooth-coated otter, Indian Giant Squirrel, wild boar, Indian gray mongoose, striped-necked mongoose, ruddy mongoose, grey slender Loris, Indian giant squirrel, Indian crested porcupine, Indian porcupine, three-striped palm squirrel, etc.

India Gandhi Sanctuary is also an excellent place for birding as it is home to about 250 different kinds of birds. Major birds found in this sanctuary include cormorants, ducks, teal, darter, partridge, parakeets, hornbills, barbets, drongos, orioles, shrikes, warblers, Old World flycatchers, quail, jungle fowl, spurfowl, Indian peafowl, woodpeckers, chloropsis, trogons, hawk eagles, harriers, falcons, kites, owls, kingfishers, storks, egrets, fish eagle and nightjars. The sanctuary also has reptiles. Coimbatore is nearest destination from tourists can easily access this sanctuary.