Anamudi is the highest mountain in India south of the Himalaya, and it rises from the Eravikulam plateau like a dark tooth. The national park, in the high Western Ghats near Munnar in Kerala, protects a landscape of rolling grassland, thick shola forest in the folds of the hills, and open skies, at heights above two thousand metres. It forms part of the Western Ghats World Heritage Site, inscribed by UNESCO in 2012, and it is the best place in the world to see the Nilgiri tahr, a stocky wild goat that lives on steep, grassy slopes.
The tahr were once close to extinction, shot for sport and driven from their ranges, and the park was set up largely to save them. They now number in the hundreds here and are remarkably tame, grazing within a few metres of the path. The plateau is also famous for the neelakurinji, a shrub that flowers purple-blue once every twelve years, covering the hills in a haze of colour. It last bloomed in 2018 and will do so again in about 2030, and the Munnar region fills with visitors when it does.
Munnar is a tea town, and the roads that climb to it from the plains run through endless terraced estates, green and tidy, with pickers working among the bushes and tea factories at the roadsides. The road is a series of hairpins up the ghats, with thick mist, sudden showers, and the cool, damp air that makes the tea so good. Surfaces can be broken after rain, and the monsoon, from June to August, brings landslides and heavy cloud.
Visitors can enter only the lower section of the park, by park-run bus from the entrance at Rajamalai, and the park is closed in February and March for the tahr calving season, so check before you plan a visit. Come early in the day, bring a rain jacket and wear layers, since the wind on the plateau is cold.
Marayur, seven kilometres away, is known for its sandalwood forests and dolmens, and offers fuel and a few places to eat. Munnar has more, but fill up on the way if you can.