Places to Visit in Pollachi

Coconut capital, film town and the doorway to the Anamalai hills — how to use Pollachi as a base for Aliyar Dam, Valparai and Topslip.

The “Manchester of South India” hides temple-crowned hills, the record-breaking Adiyogi bust and a mountain road into the Western Ghats.

Forty hairpin bends above Pollachi lift you into a plateau of tea, mist and rainforest, where lion-tailed macaques, elephants and hornbills share the estates.

Temples and the Adiyogi bust on day one, the 40 hairpin climb into the Anamalai Tiger Reserve on day two, then tea estates, waterfalls and lion-tailed macaques around Valparai.

Day 1 in Coimbatore and aboard the steam toy train; Day 2 among the botanical gardens, lakes and tea estates of the Nilgiris.

From the dry teak forests of Mudumalai to the misty rainforests of the far south, a guide to Tamil Nadu’s five tiger reserves and the sanctuaries around them.

A herb-covered granite hill on the Western Ghats, an old Murugan shrine, and the pilgrims who still climb it — the story of Coimbatore’s Marudhamalai.