Protected Areas · Long read · 13 min read

Periyar Tiger Reserve: A Forest Around a Lake

A reservoir created in 1895, a forest that a Maharaja protected from the planters, and a pioneering experiment in turning poachers into protectors. The history, ecology and people of Kerala's largest tiger reserve.

By GK Global, Adimali, Munnar · Trails & Tales by GK

In the middle of the Cardamom Hills lies a lake that should not be there. Its arms wind between forested hills, and the trunks of dead trees still stand in its shallows, more than a century after the water rose around them. Elephants come down to drink at its edges; otters fish in its bays; cormorants dry their wings on the old stumps. This is the lake at the heart of Periyar Tiger Reserve, one of the best-known protected areas in India.

A lake made by a dam

The lake was created by the Mullaperiyar dam, completed in 1895 under a lease between the Maharaja of Travancore and the British Madras Presidency, to divert water from the west-flowing Periyar through a tunnel to the dry plains of Madurai. The reservoir, about 31 km² in extent, flooded a forested valley; the dead trees still standing in it are the remains of that forest. (Read our article on the Mullaperiyar dam.)

In 1934, concerned that tea and other plantations were spreading into the forests around the lake, the government of Travancore declared the area the Nellikkampatty Game Sanctuary. It was consolidated as the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary in 1950. In 1978 it was brought under Project Tiger as one of India's early tiger reserves, and in 1982 its core was notified as Periyar National Park. Areas were added to the reserve in 2007 and 2012.

Forests and wildlife

The reserve rises from deep river valleys to high plateaus and peaks. Its forests include tropical evergreen and semi-evergreen forest, moist deciduous forest, montane grasslands, sholas on the highest hills, and marshy grasslands along the lake and streams. Nearly 2,000 species of flowering plants have been recorded, including about 140 orchids, and several plants found nowhere else, such as Syzygium periyarense.

Periyar is one of the most important places in South India for Asian elephants, and for decades was famous for the herds that come down to the lake shore. It also holds tigers: India's 2022 tiger estimate counted about 31 tigers resident in the reserve, with more than 40 using it, an increase on previous estimates. Other mammals include gaur, sambar, wild pig, leopards, dholes, sloth bears, Nilgiri tahr on the high cliffs, Nilgiri langurs, lion-tailed macaques, Malabar giant squirrels and smooth-coated otters. About 266 species of birds, 45 reptiles, about 40 fish and about 160 butterflies have been recorded.

People of the forest

The forests of Periyar have long been home to indigenous communities including the Mannan, Paliyan, Urali and Malampandaram, whose knowledge of the forest is essential to its protection. Periyar also contains one of the most important pilgrimage centres in India: the Sabarimala temple, which lies within the reserve and draws millions of pilgrims every year during the Mandalam–Makaravilakku season, a major management challenge.

Poachers into protectors: the eco-development model

In the 1990s, Periyar faced serious threats from poaching of elephants for ivory and from the smuggling of sandalwood and cinnamon bark. In 1996, the reserve became part of the India Eco-development Project, which set up eco-development committees in the villages around the reserve to give local people a share in its protection and benefits.

The most famous of these is Vidiyal Vanapathukappu Sangam, made up of former poachers and sandalwood smugglers, said to be the first such group in India. Its members, who once had poaching or smuggling cases against them, were trained and employed to protect the forest, and have helped to break more than 230 poaching and smuggling cases. Other committees run tourism programmes such as guided treks, bamboo rafting and border hikes, with income shared among local families. The Periyar model has been widely studied and copied elsewhere in India.

Tourism and tragedy

Periyar is one of Kerala's most visited protected areas, receiving several hundred thousand visitors a year, most of them for the boat rides on the lake from Thekkady. Tourism brings income but also pressure. On 30 September 2009, a tourist boat capsized on the lake, and 45 people died, one of the worst tourism disasters in Kerala. Boat safety rules were tightened after the tragedy.

Challenges

• Pilgrimage and tourism pressure from Sabarimala and Thekkady.
• Invasive plants, including eucalyptus plantations and weeds, in parts of the reserve.
• Human–wildlife conflict in the villages and plantations around its edges.
• Connectivity: maintaining links to the forests of the Srivilliputhur–Meghamalai area in Tamil Nadu and to the forests of Pathanamthitta and Idukki.