Anamudi

Also called: Anai Peak, Anaimudi · Topic: Structure and Physiography of India: Himalayas, Plains, Peninsula, Coasts and Islands · NCERT: Class 6, Ch 3 "Landforms and Life"; Class 11, Ch 2 "Structure and Physiography"

Meaning

Anamudi (also Anaimudi or Anai Peak) is the highest peak of Peninsular India (India south of the Himalayas). It is 2,695 m high and stands in the Anaimalai hills of the Western Ghats, in Idukki district, Kerala.

It shows that the Western Ghats get higher from north to south. It also lies inside Eravikulam National Park, the main home of the Nilgiri tahr. Both facts are often tested in Prelims.

Explanation

Where it sits on the Peninsular Plateau

• The Peninsular Plateau is made of the old, hard and stable Peninsular Block. Its southern part is the Deccan Plateau, a large, roughly triangular tableland (high, mostly flat land).
• The Western Ghats form the western edge of this plateau.
• They rise as a steep escarpment (a cliff-like slope) of about 1,000 m or more [5].

• They run for about 1,600 km and cover about 1,40,000 sq km [2].

• Height rises from north to south:

• The average height of the Western Ghats is about 1,500 m.
• The northern part (the Sahyadri) is lower.
• The southern hills (the Nilgiri and Anaimalai hills) are the highest. This is where Anamudi stands.

Local names of the Western Ghats and Anamudi's place among them

• North to south: Sahyadri → Nilgiri hills → Anaimalai hills → Cardamom hills → Agasthyamalai hills.
• Anamudi is in the Anaimalai hills, along the Kerala–Tamil Nadu side of the Ghats.
• The Palghat Gap (Palakkad Gap) separates the Nilgiris (north) from the Anaimalai (south).
• The gap is a low break in the hills, 30–40 km wide.
• So Anamudi lies south of the Palghat Gap, but Dodabetta lies north of it.

Ranking of the highest peaks of the Peninsula

• Anamudi: 2,695 m. In the Anaimalai hills, Idukki, Kerala. It is the highest peak.
• Dodabetta: 2,637 m. In the Nilgiri hills near Ooty (Udhagamandalam), Tamil Nadu. It is the second highest.
• Order: Anamudi > Dodabetta.
• The Eastern Ghats are lower and broken because rivers have worn them down. Their highest point is in the Mahendragiri area (Odisha), and it is well below Anamudi.

Ecology around the peak

• Eravikulam National Park contains Anamudi.
• Nilgiri tahr: a wild mountain goat found only in the southern Western Ghats.
• Shola-grassland forests cover the high hills of the southern Ghats:
• Shola forests are small patches of short, evergreen forest in sheltered valleys.
• Open montane grasslands (high-altitude grasslands) lie between these patches.

• Together they work like a sponge. They store rainwater and feed streams.

• The area is part of the Western Ghats UNESCO World Heritage Site (2012) and the Western Ghats–Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot. A biodiversity hotspot is a region with many endemic species (species found nowhere else) that has lost much of its original vegetation.

Where it occurs

• Peak: Anamudi, in the Anaimalai hills, southern Western Ghats.
• District and state: Idukki, Kerala.
• Protected area: Eravikulam National Park, the main home of the Nilgiri tahr.
• Nearby relief features:
• Palghat Gap to the north, between the Nilgiris and the Anaimalai. It links Palakkad (Kerala) with Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu).
• Nilgiri hills further north. This is where the Western and Eastern Ghats meet, and Dodabetta stands here.

• Cardamom hills and Agasthyamalai hills to the south. The Shencottah Gap lies between them.

• Wider setting: the Western Ghats cross six states: Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu [2].

Don't confuse with

• Dodabetta (2,637 m): the second highest peak of the Peninsula. It is in the Nilgiri hills, Tamil Nadu (near Ooty), not in Kerala.
• Anaimalai hills: the hill range that holds Anamudi. Anamudi is the peak, not the range.
• Nilgiri hills: the knot where the Western and Eastern Ghats meet, and home of India's first biosphere reserve (1986). Anamudi is not in the Nilgiris. It lies south of the Palghat Gap.
• Mahendragiri (Odisha): the high area of the Eastern Ghats. Anamudi is the highest point of the Western Ghats and of the whole Peninsula.

Prelims Hooks

• Highest peak of Peninsular India: Anamudi, 2,695 m. Anaimalai hills, Idukki, Kerala.
• Order: Anamudi (2,695 m) > Dodabetta (2,637 m, Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu).
• Peak–park pair: Anamudi → Eravikulam National Park → Nilgiri tahr.
• Trap: Anamudi is in Kerala, not Tamil Nadu. Dodabetta is in Tamil Nadu.
• Palghat Gap lies between the Nilgiris (north) and the Anaimalai (south), so Anamudi is south of the gap.
• Western Ghats local names, north to south: Sahyadri → Nilgiri → Anaimalai → Cardamom → Agasthyamalai. Height rises from north to south.

Mains Points

• Relief controls rainfall and rivers:
• The high southern Ghats around Anamudi block the moist south-west monsoon winds.
• The windward (wind-facing) slopes get 250–400 cm of rain. The inner Deccan lies in rain shadow (the dry side away from the wind).

• The watershed lies close to the west coast. So most Peninsular rivers rise in the Western Ghats and flow east to the Bay of Bengal (GS-I).

• Conservation vs development in the high Ghats (GS-III):

• Eravikulam, the shola-grasslands and endemic species such as the Nilgiri tahr are part of a UNESCO site (2012) and a biodiversity hotspot.
• Mining, quarrying, hill roads and plantations add to landslide risk (Kerala 2018 and 2024).
• Gadgil (WGEEP, 2011) treated the whole Ghats as ecologically sensitive, in three zones. Kasturirangan (HLWG, 2013) proposed about 37% (about 60,000 sq km) as an Ecologically Sensitive Area (an area where mining and polluting industry are limited) [3].

• The draft ESA notification was re-issued for the fifth time on 6 July 2022 [4]. The final notification is still delayed because states disagree.

• Physiography shapes connectivity: the high Anaimalai and Nilgiri blocks leave the Palghat Gap as the main low route between Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Road, rail and monsoon winds pass through it, which helps Coimbatore's farming and textile base.

Related concepts

• Deccan Plateau
• Western Ghats
• Eastern Ghats
• Dodabetta
• Nilgiri hills
• Palghat Gap
• Thal Ghat and Bhor Ghat
• Nallamala hills

Read more

• The Deccan Plateau and the Western and Eastern Ghats