Zishaan Hayath Drive: The Anamalai Loop

Route Map

Two great roads and a lot of tea. The forty numbered hairpins from Aliyar are the famous climb, and they earn it — the whole escarpment gained through reserve forest. The upper bends are one of the better places on earth to see a lion-tailed macaque. There are perhaps four thousand left.

The second road is the one people miss. From Valparai the tarmac carries on west through Malakkappara and drops through the Vazhachal core forest into Kerala, finishing at Athirappilly. Narrow, unshouldered, policed by checkposts, limited to thirty an hour. It is held to be the finest forest drive in the south.

Taking it turns what is usually an out-and-back into a loop: down to the plains at Chalakudy, back into Tamil Nadu through Palakkad, and up to Topslip and Parambikulam for the last two days.

Bangalore to Coimbatore and back accounts for 760 of the 1265 km. That is the price of the Anamalais from here. The four days in between pay it.

Day	Route	Distance	Highlights	Night stay
01	Bangalore → Salem → Coimbatore	360 km 6.5 h	Fast four-lane the whole way. Nothing to see and no reason to linger — this is the day that buys the other six	Coimbatore
02	Coimbatore → Pollachi → Aliyar → Valparai	105 km 3 h	Coconut country to Pollachi, then Aliyar dam and Monkey Falls at the foot of the climb. Forty numbered hairpins up through the Anamalai Tiger Reserve, with lion-tailed macaques in the canopy on the upper bends	Valparai
03	Valparai and the estates	70 km local	The day to potter. Tea to the horizon in every direction, then the Sholayar and Nirar dams, Loam's View, and the road out to Grass Hills for Nilgiri tahr if the permit comes through	Valparai
04	Valparai → Malakkappara → Vazhachal → Athirappilly	100 km 3.5 h	The best road of the trip and the most tightly policed. Out of the tea into rainforest at Malakkappara, then the Vazhachal core zone at a steady thirty, and down to Kerala's largest waterfall	Athirappilly
05	Athirappilly → Chalakudy → Palakkad → Pollachi	180 km 4 h	Down to the plains and back into Tamil Nadu the long way round, which closes the loop rather than retracing the forest road. Palakkad fort on the way if the afternoon allows	Pollachi
06	Topslip and Parambikulam	80 km local	Into Anamalai Tiger Reserve at Topslip, then across the state line to Parambikulam — teak forest, a reservoir, and the Kannimara teak, which is some four hundred and fifty years old and the largest of its kind anywhere	Pollachi
07	Pollachi → Bangalore	400 km 7 h	The run home via Coimbatore and Salem	Bangalore

Notes

The Vazhachal road on day 4 runs to the forest department's clock, not yours. The checkposts admit vehicles between 6 am and 6 pm, you are given a two-hour window to cross the core zone, and arriving after about 4.30 pm gets you turned back to whichever end you came from. Thirty kilometres an hour, no stopping, and carry ID.

Parambikulam can only be entered through Topslip on the Tamil Nadu side, and you pay at both reserves. Permits are issued at the Parambikulam checkpost or booked ahead through the Kerala forest department; if you want to stay inside the reserve rather than at Pollachi, that has to be booked well in advance through the wildlife office.

Topslip itself runs 7 am to 4 pm, with vehicle safaris from 7.30 am. Day 6 is an early start or a wasted one.

October to March. The Anamalais take both the south-west and north-east monsoons, and the Vazhachal road in heavy rain is no place to be.

Surfaces are good on the Aliyar climb and through Valparai. The Malakkappara stretch is narrow but sealed. The forest tracks inside Topslip and Parambikulam are the only places clearance is a question, and safaris there are in the reserve's own vehicles anyway.

Six days works by folding day 5 into day 4 — Valparai to Pollachi in one go through the forest — but that means reaching the Vazhachal checkpost early and giving up the night at Athirappilly, which is the wrong economy.