Meesapulimala Trek Guide: Munnar's 2,640 m Ridge Walk

Introduction

The Meesapulimala trek is the best high-altitude grassland walk in South India that an ordinary person can legally Enquire. That sentence has a lot of qualifiers in it and every one of them matters.

The peak sits at 2,640 metres in Idukki district, about 20 km from Munnar, on the ridge between the Anaimalai and Palani hills. The name comes from the mountain's supposed resemblance to a whiskered leopard: meesa for moustache, puli for leopard, mala for hill. The trek runs over eight successive hills of shola grassland, through rhododendron, past a base camp at around 1,800 m, and up onto a ridge where on a clear morning you can see Anamudi one way and the Tamil Nadu plains the other.

You cannot walk up on your own. The Kerala Forest Development Corporation controls access, assigns guides and runs the stays. That is not a bureaucratic annoyance. It is the reason this landscape is still intact.

Table of Contents

1. Quick Overview
2. The "Second Highest Peak" Claim, Examined
3. Anamudi: Why You Cannot Climb It
4. The Route
5. Permits & Booking
6. Where You Sleep: Base Camp, Rhodo Mansion, Sky Cottage
7. How to Reach from Mumbai
8. How to Reach from Pune
9. Itinerary Options
10. Accommodation in Munnar
11. Food
12. Nearby Attractions
13. Budget Breakdown
14. Practical Tips
15. Safety Tips
16. Common Mistakes
17. Best Time to Visit
18. FAQ
19. Conclusion
20. Sources

Quick Overview

Item	Detail
Altitude	2,640 m (8,661 ft)
District	Idukki, Kerala
Distance from Munnar	About 20 km to the peak area; 24 km by road to the base camp via Mattupetty
Base camp altitude	About 6,000 ft (roughly 1,800 m), per KFDC
Rhodo Valley	4 km beyond base camp by jeep, the last point reachable by any four-wheeler
Trek length	Described by Kerala Tourism as a trail through eight hills; commonly reported as around 8 km
Grade	Kerala Tourism calls it "hard trekking" requiring basic preparation
Operator	Kerala Forest Development Corporation (KFDC) Ecotourism, Munnar
Nearby	Kolukkumalai tea estate, Top Station, Suryanelli, Tipadamala (2,135 m)
Wildlife	Nilgiri tahr, sambar, gaur, dhole, sloth bear
Best season	Roughly September to March; avoid peak monsoon

The "Second Highest Peak" Claim, Examined

You will see this everywhere: Meesapulimala is the second highest peak in the Western Ghats. It is worth knowing exactly how solid that is, because the sources are not unanimous.

Kerala Tourism's ecotourism portal states it plainly: "Meesappulimala — a destination for the highly adventurous is the second highest peak in the Western Ghats." That is the state tourism department, published, on the record. It is also the basis for nearly every article you will read.

Wikipedia's article is more careful, and more interesting. It describes Meesapulimala as "the next south of the second highest peak (Manna Malai 2,659 metres)". The citation is a US Army Map Service toposheet which marks Manna Malai at 8,724 ft and an unnamed 8,661 ft point to its south, which is Meesapulimala. A KDHP estate map cited in the same article lists an unnamed 2,658 m point near the border alongside "Misappuli Malai" at 2,624 m.

So the picture is: Anamudi at 2,695 m is unambiguously the highest peak in the Western Ghats and in India outside the Himalaya-Karakoram. Below it there is a cluster of points in the 2,620 to 2,660 m range on the same massif, and whether the specific summit called Manna Malai counts as a separate "peak" or as a shoulder of the same ridge is a mapping judgement, not a settled fact.

How I would put it: Meesapulimala at 2,640 m is the second highest peak in the Western Ghats that you can actually trek to, and the second highest by the state tourism department's own reckoning. If you want to be precise in company, add that older topographic surveys mark a slightly higher unnamed point on the adjoining ridge.

Do not let anyone tell you the number is exactly 2,640 m to the metre without qualification either. Wikipedia gives 2,640 m and 8,661 ft; the KDHP estate map gives 2,624 m. Both are cited. Use 2,640 m and know why.

Anamudi: Why You Cannot Climb It

Every Meesapulimala planning conversation eventually reaches this question, so here it is.

Anamudi, 2,695 m, is closed to trekking. It sits inside Eravikulam National Park, and the summit is out of bounds for general visitors. Access is restricted to Forest Department staff and authorised researchers. The peak is protected because Eravikulam holds the largest surviving population of the endangered Nilgiri tahr and the summit grasslands are their core habitat.

What you get instead is the Rajamala visitor experience. Private vehicles are stopped at the Forest Department parking near the Rajamalai gate. You buy a ticket and board a park-operated shuttle bus, which takes you roughly fifteen minutes up into the high grasslands. From the upper visitor zone you get a view of Anamudi, the surrounding ridges, and the grassland rolling towards the Tamil Nadu border. You walk a short marked stretch. That is it, and it is genuinely worth doing, particularly for the tahr, which come remarkably close.

Eravikulam also closes annually for the tahr calving season, usually across February and March. Check before you plan.

So if your goal is "climb the highest peak in the Western Ghats", the answer is that you cannot, and Meesapulimala is the legitimate substitute. It is 55 m lower, it is on the same massif, and you can see Anamudi from it.

The Route

Munnar to base camp. Travel 24 km from Munnar via Mattupetty, through the Aruvikkad estate, to the KFDC base camp. The turning sequence, for anyone driving themselves: after the small bridge in Munnar take the right towards Devikulam, then left onto Silent Valley Road. Roughly 18 to 20 km along, turn left after the Silent Valley hospital board, and after about 3 km you reach the KFDC Ecotourism base camp signboard.

Important, because people get this wrong constantly: Silent Valley Road near Munnar has nothing to do with Silent Valley National Park in Palakkad district. Same name, completely different place, 200 km apart. If your map app is sending you towards Mannarkkad, you have the wrong Silent Valley.

Base camp to Rhodo Valley. 4 km, by jeep, and this is the last point any four-wheeler reaches. En route you pass what is locally called the Pandava cave. Rhodo Valley sits in the rhododendron belt and the KFDC accommodation there is protected by an elephant trench, which tells you something useful about the neighbourhood.

Rhodo Valley to the peak. This is the walk. Kerala Tourism describes it as a trail through eight hills, and that is the honest way to think about it — not one long climb but eight successive shola-grassland rises, each one making you think you have arrived. You have not. The eighth one is the peak.

The ground underfoot is grassland with rock, and in places it is steep and loose. There is no shade for most of it. Kerala Tourism grades the whole thing as "hard trekking" needing basic preparation, and I would take that at face value rather than as tourism-brochure caution. If you have not walked uphill for four hours in the last six months, train first.

The Kolukkumalai connection. Kolukkumalai tea estate, famous for the highest tea plantation in the world claim and for sunrise jeep runs, sits on the same ridge system. Wikipedia states flatly that "the trekking path from Kolukkumalai to Meesapulimala is highly restricted." Some operators advertise a Kolukkumalai-to-Meesapulimala crossing. Treat any such offer with suspicion, confirm it with KFDC directly, and do not assume that because someone sold you a package it is authorised.

Permits & Booking

KFDC Ecotourism, Munnar, is the operator. Not a travel agency, not a resort, not a WhatsApp group. Everything runs through them.

• Website: munnar.kfdcecotourism.com
• Address: Mattupatty Road, Munnar
• Phone: +91 4865 230332
• Mobile: +91 8289821408

The packages, at Kerala Tourism's published rates:

Package	Rate	Includes
Stay at Base Camp (tent)	Rs 4,000 for two persons	Breakfast, lunch, evening tea, dinner, campfire
Stay at Rhodo Mansion	Rs 6,000 for two persons	Campfire and food included
Stay at Sky Cottage	Rs 9,000 for three persons	Trekking, guide service and food

These figures come from the Kerala Tourism ecotourism portal's Munnar page. KFDC's own base camp booking page confirms Rs 4,000 for 2 persons, full board (evening tea, campfire, dinner, breakfast and lunch), excluding transportation, with check-in preferably between noon and 2 pm and check-out after 23 hours or 1 pm the following day, whichever is earlier.

Note the phrase "excluding transportation" on the KFDC page. The jeep from Munnar to base camp, and base camp to Rhodo Valley, is not in the package price. Budget for it separately and ask KFDC what they charge.

Capacity. Kerala Tourism states a maximum of 40 persons for a single night tent stay at base camp. That is the whole camp. On a long weekend in December, forty is nothing. Book early.

Day trek without a stay. A permit-only day trek is widely reported at around Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,950 per person depending on what is bundled in. These figures come from travel and operator sites, not from KFDC or Kerala Tourism, so I am not going to present them as the official rate. Ring KFDC on 04865 230332 and ask. It is a two-minute call and it is the only way to get a current number.

What is mandatory:

• Booking in advance, online through the KFDC portal. Turning up at the base camp gate is not a plan.
• A KFDC guide. Guide service is bundled into the packages. You do not walk this alone.
• Basic fitness. Kerala Tourism's own description says "this is a hard trekking and needs to do basic preparation."

Kerala Tourism's standing disclaimer applies: ecotourism package availability is subject to change based on climate and other conditions, and you should confirm availability beforehand. In practice this means monsoon suspensions and weather closures happen.

Where You Sleep: Base Camp, Rhodo Mansion, Sky Cottage

Three options, three quite different nights.

Base Camp tents. Around 6,000 ft. Tents, campfire, electricity from a micro-turbine, full board. Maximum 40 people across the camp. Cheapest of the three at Rs 4,000 for two. The tents are the sociable option and the cold at 1,800 m in December is real but manageable.

Rhodo Mansion, Rhodo Valley. Higher, in the rhododendron belt, 4 km up the jeep track from base camp. Rs 6,000 for two, campfire and food included. Kerala Tourism notes the Rhodo Valley night stay has elephant trench protection, which is not a decorative detail. You are closer to the peak, which means a shorter and better summit morning.

Sky Cottage. Rs 9,000 for three persons, including trekking, guide service and food. KFDC's description is a single cottage on a cliff facing a waterfall, with views towards Anamudi, and a transparent ceiling that gives you the night sky on a clear evening. Three people only. If you are a group of three and you can get the date, take it.

Which would I book? Rhodo Mansion, for the altitude and the shorter summit push. Base camp if you are on a budget or want the campfire crowd. Sky Cottage if you are exactly three and want the best single night.

How to Reach from Mumbai

Fly to Kochi. Cochin International Airport (COK) is the gateway. Kerala Tourism's own Munnar page puts Munnar at 108 km from Cochin International Airport. Mumbai to Kochi direct flights run several times daily and take roughly two hours.

From Kochi airport to Munnar is a three-and-a-half to four-hour drive through Neriamangalam and the Ghat road. Pre-book a taxi; airport taxis charge airport rates. KSRTC buses run from Aluva and Ernakulam to Munnar.

By train. The nearest useful railheads are Aluva (109 km from Munnar) and Ernakulam (126 km), both per Kerala Tourism. Mumbai to Ernakulam by train is a long haul, well over 24 hours on most services, down the Konkan Railway and through Mangaluru. Romantic, and it eats two days of your leave. If you have the time, the Konkan stretch is one of the great Indian train journeys. If you do not, fly.

The sequence that works from Mumbai: Friday evening flight to Kochi, night in Kochi or drive straight up to Munnar. Saturday transfer to base camp, afternoon acclimatisation, overnight. Sunday summit and descend, drive to Kochi, evening flight home. Tight but doable.

How to Reach from Pune

Fly to Kochi. Pune to Kochi direct flights operate on most days, roughly two hours. Same onward plan as above.

Via Coimbatore. Underrated option. Pune to Coimbatore direct flights exist, and Coimbatore to Munnar is about 160 km via Udumalaipettai and Marayoor, or via Pollachi. Comparable drive time to the Kochi route, sometimes cheaper flights, and the Marayoor approach through the sandalwood forest is a much better drive than the Neriamangalam ghat.

By train. Pune to Ernakulam via the Konkan Railway or via the Guntakal route. Long. Twenty-six hours plus. Then road to Munnar.

By road. Pune to Munnar is well over 1,200 km. Two full driving days each way. Only worth it as part of a longer South India road trip.

Itinerary Options

Option A — Overnight at base camp (the standard). Day 1: Reach Munnar by morning. Transfer to base camp, check in by 2 pm. Afternoon around camp, campfire, dinner. Day 2: Early trek to Meesapulimala, back down, check out by 1 pm, drive out.

Option B — Rhodo Valley night (my pick). Same shape, but you jeep on 4 km further to Rhodo Mansion. Higher start, shorter summit push, better morning light on the ridge.

Option C — Three days, Munnar plus Meesapulimala. Day 1: Arrive Munnar, Mattupetty and the tea museum, night in town. Day 2: Base camp or Rhodo Valley, overnight. Day 3: Summit, descend, Eravikulam / Rajamala shuttle in the afternoon if the park is open. This is the version I would recommend for a first trip, because it gives you a buffer day for weather and it lets you see Anamudi properly from the Rajamala side.

Option D — Day trek. Possible with a permit, no stay. You lose the ridge at sunrise, which is the whole point. Only do this if your dates are fixed and the camps are full.

Accommodation in Munnar

KFDC camps. Covered above. Book through munnar.kfdcecotourism.com.

Munnar town. Everything from Rs 1,000 lodges to serious plantation resorts. The town itself is loud, congested and not especially charming; it is a functional base.

Chinnakanal and Anachal. Twenty to thirty minutes out, quieter, better views, mid-range homestays and resorts. Better value than the town.

Suryanelli. Closer to the Meesapulimala side and to Kolukkumalai. Small, plain, and convenient if you are stacking both.

Devikulam and Mattupetty. On the road to the base camp. Handy if you want a short morning transfer.

Book Munnar accommodation ahead in December, January and during the Neelakurinji years. The town fills completely.

Food

On the trek, food is included. All three KFDC packages are full board: evening tea, dinner, breakfast, lunch. Simple Kerala camp food, cooked at the camp, and better than it needs to be.

Carry anyway. Nuts, dry fruit, chocolate, ORS sachets. Eight hills at altitude burns more than you expect and the summit push happens before breakfast on most itineraries.

Water. Carry at least two litres per person for the summit walk. There is no reliable source on the ridge.

In Munnar town. Kerala breakfast is the reason to get up early even on a rest day. Puttu and kadala curry, appam and stew, idiyappam. Cardamom-heavy tea everywhere, because you are standing in a cardamom-growing district.

Alcohol. Do not carry it to the camps. Alcohol at 2,000 m plus, followed by a pre-dawn climb, is how people get into difficulty.

Nearby Attractions

• Eravikulam National Park (Rajamala) — the Nilgiri tahr, and the only legal way to get near Anamudi. Shuttle bus only. Closed annually for calving, usually February to March.
• Kolukkumalai — sunrise from the tea estate, reached by a rough jeep track from Suryanelli. Note that the trekking path from Kolukkumalai to Meesapulimala is highly restricted.
• Top Station — the old ropeway terminus on the Kerala–Tamil Nadu border, with a big view down into the Theni plains.
• Mattupetty Dam and Echo Point — on the road to the base camp, so you pass them anyway.
• Marayoor — sandalwood forest, dolmens and jaggery. An hour and a half north and completely different in character.
• Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary — dry deciduous, grizzled giant squirrel, on the Marayoor road.
• Anayirangal and Chinnakanal waterfalls — south of Munnar towards Suryanelli.

For a fuller Kerala trip built around this, see our Kerala tour guide with places, packages and season.

Budget Breakdown

Two people, three nights, from Mumbai. Indicative.

Item	Budget (₹)	Mid-range (₹)
Mumbai–Kochi return flight, per person	6,000	11,000
Kochi–Munnar return taxi (whole car)	6,000	9,000
Munnar hotel, 1 night (per room)	1,500	4,500
KFDC Base Camp tent, 2 persons, full board	4,000	4,000
KFDC Rhodo Mansion, 2 persons, full board (alternative)	6,000	6,000
Jeep transfers to base camp and Rhodo Valley	Ask KFDC	Ask KFDC
Eravikulam / Rajamala tickets, per person	200	400
Food outside the camp, per person	1,000	2,500
Buffer	2,000	3,000

The KFDC rates are from Kerala Tourism's ecotourism portal and KFDC's own booking page. Transport is explicitly excluded from the camp packages. Everything else is a travel estimate.

Practical Tips

Book KFDC directly. The camps are small, forty people at base camp for a whole night, and third-party resellers will happily take your money for a slot that does not exist.

Confirm the jeep. "Excluding transportation" on the KFDC page means exactly that. Ask what the transfer costs when you book.

Layers. It is Kerala, and it is also 2,000 m plus at night in a tent. December and January nights at base camp get genuinely cold. A fleece and a windproof shell, minimum.

Sun. The shola grassland has no shade and the UV at that altitude is serious even under cloud. Cap, sunglasses, sunscreen.

Do not confuse the two Silent Valleys. The road near Munnar, not the national park in Palakkad.

Footwear with grip and a stiff-ish sole. Grassland with loose rock underneath is a specific problem and it is where ankles go on the descent. The reasoning in our trekking footwear guide for Sahyadri terrain mostly transfers; add more sole stiffness than you would use on a Sahyadri fort.

Cash. Munnar has ATMs. The camps prefer sorted-out payment in advance.

Network. Patchy from Mattupetty onwards, gone at Rhodo Valley. Tell someone your plan.

Carry your waste back. Everything you take up, you bring down.

Safety Tips

Altitude. At 2,640 m this is not classic AMS territory for most people, but if you have flown in from sea-level Mumbai that morning and are on the ridge by the next dawn, you have gained a lot in a short time. Sleep a night in Munnar or at base camp before the summit push. Headache that will not clear with water, nausea and unusual breathlessness at rest all mean go down.

Cold and wind. The ridge gets exposed and windy. Hypothermia in Kerala sounds absurd until you are wet, at 2,600 m, in wind, in a t-shirt.

Wildlife. Wikipedia lists Nilgiri tahr, sambar, gaur, dhole and sloth bear for the Meesapulimala area. Gaur are the real concern; they are big, they are not afraid of you, and they will charge if surprised at close range in grassland. The Rhodo Valley camp has an elephant trench for a reason. Stay with your guide. Read wildlife safety on Sahyadri treks for the general principles, which apply directly.

Fog. Shola grassland fogs in within minutes and eight identical hills look very identical when you cannot see. This is precisely why the guide is not optional.

Descent injuries. Most Meesapulimala injuries are on the way down, on loose grass and rock, in the second half when people are tired. Slow down.

Leeches. Not a peak-season problem at this altitude, but if you are anywhere in the Munnar lower forests in the monsoon, they are constant. Leech socks over trousers, taped ankles, tobacco-and-lime paste on the shoes, and check behind the knees at every halt. Flick them off at the narrow end rather than pulling; a torn bite gets infected. Expect the bleeding to continue for an hour, which is normal.

Turning back. If your guide calls it, that is the decision. When to cancel or turn back from a trek.

First aid. Blisters, sprains, sunburn, dehydration. Our first aid kit for Sahyadri treks list is the right base; add extra ORS and a proper lip balm.

Emergency numbers. Police 112. KFDC Ecotourism Munnar: +91 4865 230332, +91 8289821408.

Common Mistakes

Assuming you can climb Anamudi. You cannot. It is inside Eravikulam National Park, closed to general trekking, shuttle bus to Rajamala only.

Booking through a reseller instead of KFDC. Forty tent spaces at base camp. Do the arithmetic on how many operators are advertising it.

Not budgeting for transport. The KFDC packages exclude it, in writing.

Treating it as an easy walk because it is Kerala. Kerala Tourism calls it hard trekking requiring basic preparation. It is eight hills at altitude.

Navigating to Silent Valley National Park. Wrong district, 200 km away.

Arriving at base camp late. Check-in is preferably between noon and 2 pm.

Buying a Kolukkumalai-to-Meesapulimala crossing without checking. That path is highly restricted.

Going in June. Peak monsoon on an exposed grassland ridge with no view is a waste of a permit.

Best Time to Visit

September to November — the best window. The monsoon has cleared, the grassland is at its greenest, visibility is at its annual best and you get Anamudi on the horizon on a clear morning. September can still catch tail-end rain; October and November are excellent.

December to February — cold, clear, crowded. The clearest air of the year and the coldest nights. Munnar is at peak season prices and the camps book out weeks ahead. Worth it if you plan early. Note that Eravikulam usually closes for tahr calving across February and March, so you may lose the Rajamala half of the trip.

March to May — warming up, hazier. Still workable, and quieter. Visibility drops as the pre-monsoon haze builds. Afternoon thunderstorms start appearing on the ridge from April, which matters on exposed grassland.

June to August — the South-West monsoon. Skip it. Zero visibility, exposed ridge, and Kerala Tourism's own disclaimer notes packages are subject to change based on climate. Check whether the camps are even operating.

Our monsoon trekking safety in the Sahyadri guide covers the habits worth carrying into any Western Ghats monsoon travel, and safe river and stream crossings in monsoon is relevant on the drive in, where the ghat roads flood.

FAQ

Q: How high is Meesapulimala? A: 2,640 m, or 8,661 ft, per Wikipedia citing US Army Map Service data. A KDHP estate map cited in the same article gives 2,624 m for "Misappuli Malai". Use 2,640 m.

Q: Is Meesapulimala the second highest peak in the Western Ghats? A: Kerala Tourism's ecotourism portal states that it is. Wikipedia is more cautious, describing it as the next peak south of Manna Malai at 2,659 m, based on an old toposheet. Anamudi at 2,695 m is unambiguously the highest. The fair statement is that Meesapulimala is the second highest by Kerala Tourism's own reckoning, and the highest peak in the Western Ghats you can legally trek to.

Q: Can I trek to Anamudi? A: No. Anamudi is inside Eravikulam National Park and the summit is closed to general visitors, with access restricted to Forest Department staff and authorised researchers. Visitors park at Rajamalai and take a Forest Department shuttle bus into the high grasslands for a view of the peak.

Q: Who runs the Meesapulimala trek? A: The Kerala Forest Development Corporation (KFDC) Ecotourism, Munnar. Mattupatty Road, Munnar. Phone +91 4865 230332, mobile +91 8289821408, website munnar.kfdcecotourism.com.

Q: What does the Meesapulimala trek cost? A: Kerala Tourism publishes: Rs 4,000 for two persons at Base Camp, Rs 6,000 for two at Rhodo Mansion, Rs 9,000 for three at Sky Cottage. All are full board with guide service. KFDC's own base camp page confirms Rs 4,000 for two, full board, excluding transportation. Permit-only day trek rates are quoted around Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,950 per person by travel sites, but that range is not published by KFDC or Kerala Tourism, so call and confirm.

Q: How many people can stay at base camp? A: Kerala Tourism states a maximum of 40 persons for a single night tent stay at base camp.

Q: How do I get to Meesapulimala from Mumbai? A: Fly Mumbai to Kochi (about two hours), then drive to Munnar, which Kerala Tourism puts at 108 km from Cochin International Airport. From Munnar it is 24 km to the KFDC base camp via Mattupetty and the Aruvikkad estate. Rail alternatives are Aluva (109 km from Munnar) and Ernakulam (126 km), but the train from Mumbai takes well over a day.

Q: Can I trek from Kolukkumalai to Meesapulimala? A: Wikipedia states that the trekking path from Kolukkumalai to Meesapulimala is highly restricted. Do not book a crossing from an operator without confirming it directly with KFDC.

Q: Is Meesapulimala difficult? A: Kerala Tourism describes it as hard trekking requiring basic preparation. It is a trail through eight successive hills of open grassland at altitude, with no shade and loose ground in places. Fit walkers manage it comfortably; unprepared ones do not enjoy it.

Conclusion

Meesapulimala is what happens when a forest corporation decides to run a mountain properly. Limited numbers, a mandatory guide, a tent camp with an elephant trench and a micro-turbine, and a ridge at 2,640 metres that almost nobody is standing on.

Book direct with KFDC, take the Rhodo Valley night if you can get it, and go in October or November. Understand before you leave home that Anamudi is closed and that this is the legitimate alternative rather than a consolation prize. Add the Rajamala shuttle on your spare afternoon so you see the highest peak in the Western Ghats even though you cannot stand on it.

And do not underestimate eight hills. Kerala Tourism calls it hard trekking, and Kerala Tourism is not usually in the business of talking its own attractions down.

Call to Action

Building a wider Kerala trip around this? Start with our Kerala tour guide covering places, packages and season, and read when to cancel or turn back from a trek before you book a non-refundable camp slot in shoulder season.

Image Alt Text Suggestions

1. Meesapulimala ridge at 2,640 m with shola grassland in morning light
2. KFDC base camp tents at 6,000 ft near Munnar
3. Rhodo Mansion accommodation in Rhodo Valley, Munnar
4. Jeep track from base camp to Rhodo Valley through rhododendron
5. View of Anamudi peak from the Meesapulimala ridge
6. One of the eight hills on the Meesapulimala trekking trail
7. Nilgiri tahr on grassland slopes in the Munnar high range
8. Campfire at the KFDC Meesapulimala base camp at dusk
9. Fog rolling across shola grassland on the Meesapulimala trail
10. Tea estates on the Mattupetty road en route to the base camp

Sources

1. Trek to Meesapulimala and Stay in Rhodo Valley — Kerala Tourism Ecotourism: https://www.keralatourism.org/ecotourism/trekking-programs/trekking-munnar/36
2. Meesapulimala Base Camp booking details — KFDC Ecotourism Munnar: https://munnar.kfdcecotourism.com/Home/StayDetails/3
3. KFDC Ecotourism Munnar: https://munnar.kfdcecotourism.com/
4. Meesapulimala — Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meesapulimala
5. Anamudi — Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anamudi
6. Eravikulam National Park — Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eravikulam_National_Park
7. Kolukkumalai — Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolukkumalai
8. Ecotourism — Kerala Forest Department: https://forest.kerala.gov.in/en/ecotourism/
9. Kerala Forest Ecotourism booking portal: https://ecotourism.forest.kerala.gov.in/
10. Munnar destination page — Kerala Tourism Ecotourism: https://www.keralatourism.org/ecotourism/destinations/munnar

KFDC package rates, capacity and seasonal availability change. Kerala Tourism's own disclaimer notes that ecotourism package availability is subject to climate and other conditions. Confirm with KFDC Ecotourism Munnar on +91 4865 230332 before booking travel.