Manjolai Hills

Manjolai Hills is a high-altitude hill station and tea plantation area located within the Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve in Tirunelveli District, Tamil Nadu, in the Western Ghats at about 1,160 metres elevation. Known for its extensive tea estates managed since the British era, mist-covered hills, dense forests and views of the Manimuthar Dam, it offers a secluded natural landscape with limited public access requiring forest department permission.

Visitors can expect a secluded Western Ghats landscape inside a tiger reserve with rolling tea plantations, dense evergreen forests, misty valleys and viewpoints overlooking the Manimuthar Dam and reservoir. Access is via winding ghat roads from Ambasamudram and Manimuthar through forest check posts. The area is primarily a plantation settlement with estate bungalows, viewpoints like Kuthiravetti, and forest trails. Facilities are minimal and entry requires prior permission from the Tamil Nadu Forest Department.

Manjolai tea estates were established in 1929 during the British colonial period and have been managed by The Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation (BBTC). The plantations were developed on leased forest land in the Western Ghats and remain a long-standing plantation settlement within what is now the Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve.

The area is part of the Western Ghats landscape and the Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, known for its plantation heritage and natural environment. The tea estate settlement reflects the region's colonial plantation history and its continued association with tea cultivation in the southern Western Ghats.