Kudremukh National Park, named for a hill whose silhouette resembles a horse's face (kudure mukha in Kannada), protects one of the Western Ghats' most significant remaining rainforest ecosystems, home to tigers, elephants and the endangered lion-tailed macaque. The park's rolling grassy hills interspersed with dense shola forest offer some of South India's most rewarding trekking terrain, including the popular multi-day trek to the Kudremukh peak itself.
Mining activity within parts of the park's boundaries was a significant point of environmental controversy for decades, and ongoing conservation efforts have focused on restoring degraded areas while protecting the park's exceptional biodiversity, which includes numerous endemic Western Ghats species found nowhere else.
Declared a national park in 1987, Kudremukh has been the subject of long-running conservation efforts to balance its ecological significance against historical iron ore mining operations within parts of its boundaries, with mining gradually phased out in favour of stronger habitat protection.
October to March; trekking permits should be arranged in advance.
About 95km from Chikmagalur, roughly 3 hours by road.
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