Wildlife of Kerala

Most of Kerala's native habitat, which consists of wet evergreen rainforests at lower elevations and highland deciduous and semi-evergreen forests in the east, has a humid tropical climate. However, significant variations in terrain and elevation lead to high biodiversity. But Alappuzha district has no forests.

Evergreen forests

Most of Kerala's significantly biodiverse tracts of wilderness lie in the evergreen forests of its easternmost districts; coastal Kerala mostly lies under cultivation and is home to comparatively little wildlife. Despite this, Kerala contains 9,400 km² of natural forests. Out of the approximately 7,500 km² of non-plantation forest cover, there are wild regions of tropical wet evergreen and semi-evergreen forests, tropical moist and dry deciduous forests, and montane subtropical and temperate forests. Such forests together cover 24% of Kerala's landmass. Kerala also hosts four of the world's Ramsar Convention-listed wetlands: Ashtamudi Lake, Lake Sasthamkotta, Thrissur-Ponnani Kole Wetlands, and the Vembanad-Kol wetlands are noted as being wetlands of international importance. There are also numerous protected conservation areas, including 1455.4 km² of the vast Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve and 1828 km² of the Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve.
Parambikulam forest in Palakkad district is one of the jungle regions in Kerala.

Eastern Kerala's windward mountains shelter tropical moist forests and tropical dry forests which are generally characteristic of the wider Western Ghats: crowns of giant sonokeling, anjili, mullumurikku, Cassia, and other trees dominate the canopies of large tracts of virgin forest. Overall, Kerala's forests are home to more than 1,000 species of trees. Smaller flora include bamboo, wild black pepper, wild cardamom, the calamus rattan palm, and aromatic vetiver grass. The world's oldest teak plantation, Conolly's Plot, is in Nilambur.

In turn, the forests play host to such major fauna as the Asian elephant, Bengal tiger, leopard, Nilgiri tahr, and grizzled giant squirrel. More remote preserves, including Silent Valley National Park in the Kundali Hills, harbour endangered species such as the Lion-tailed macaque, Indian sloth bear, and gaur. More common species include the Indian porcupine, chital, sambar, gray langur, flying squirrel, swamp lynx, boar, a variety of catarrhine Old World monkey species, the dhole, and the Asian palm civet.
Many reptiles, such as the tree snake, green snake, king cobra, viper, python, and various turtles and crocodiles are to be found in Kerala — again, disproportionately in the east. Kerala has about 453 species of birds such as the Sri Lanka frogmouth, leaf picking bird, Oriental bay owl, large frugivores like the great hornbill and Indian grey hornbill, as well as the more widespread birds such as peafowl, Indian cormorant, jungle and hill mynas, the Oriental darter, black-hooded oriole, greater racket-tailed and black drongoes, bulbul, species of kingfisher and woodpecker, jungle fowl, Alexandrine parakeets, and assorted ducks and migratory birds. Additionally, freshwater fish such as kadu and brackishwater species such as choottachi are native to Kerala's lakes and waterways.

Biosphere reserve	Area	Year started
Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve	1455.4	1986
Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve	1828	2001

Wildlife sanctuary	Area	Year started
Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary	925	1950
Neyyar Wildlife Sanctuary	128	1958
Peechi-Vazhani Wildlife Sanctuary	125	1958
Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary	344.44	1973
Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary	286	1973
Idukki Wildlife Sanctuary	70	1976
Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary	53	1983
Chimmini Wildlife Sanctuary	85	1984
Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary	90.44	1984
Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuary	171	1984
Aralam Wildlife Sanctuary	55	1984
Kurinjimala Sanctuary	32	2006
Malabar Wildlife Sanctuary	74.21	2009
Kottiyoor Wildlife Sanctuary	30.38	2011
Karimpuzha Wildlife Sanctuary	227.97	2020

Bird sanctuary	Area	Year started
Thattekad Bird Sanctuary	25	1983
Mangalavanam Bird Sanctuary	0.0274	2004
Chulanur Bird Sanctuary	3.42	2007
Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary	0.0566

Community reserve	Area	Year started
Kadalundi Bird Sanctuary	1.5	2007