Manjampatti Valley is a 110.9 km2 (42.8 sq mi) protected area in the eastern end of Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park (IGWS&NP) in Tirupur District, Tamil Nadu, South India.

It is a pristine drainage basin of shola and montane rainforest with high biodiversity recently threatened by illegal land clearing and cultivation.

Manjampatti Valley is the eastern core zone of the Indira Gandhi National Park (IGWS&NP)[3] It is managed as an Ib-Wilderness Area: a large area of unmodified or slightly modified land, retaining its natural character and influence, without permanent or significant habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural condition.

Total = 11,090.5 ha = 110.905 km2 (42.821 sq mi) To the east, it adjoins the western ends of the Kodaikanal and Dindigul Forest Districts.

These Forests will make up part of the new Kodaikanal Wildlife Sanctuary and the proposed Palani Hills National Park.

To the south and west it adjoins Munnar forest Division and Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary in Idukki District, Kerala.

Some areas of the drainage basin are not included within the political boundaries of the national park, including the Kodaikanal Taluk villages of Kumbur, Mannavanur and Kilanavayal; Upper Palani Reserve Forest (Kilanavayal) and a 2 km wide strip of the east end of Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary.

[1] p. 180,[5] The IGWS&NP and the Kodaikanal and Dindigul Forest Districts are designated the Anaimalai Conservation Area,[6] a two-year collaborative project of the Wildlife Institute of India and the U.S.D.A.

Iron Age (1200-200 BC) Dolmens, consisting of a stone floor slab 3 to 5 feet long, 3 stone walls about 2 feet high, and a "roof" stone slab, found on at least 2 stony hilltops on the edges of the valley.. and..the existence of unexpectedly large temple ruins in the isolated village of Thalinji, and the later (1559–1736) assignment of land by Madurai Nayak Dynasty kings to cultivators in the upper Palanis, indicate that there has been continuous interaction from prehistoric times to the present between plains people and the ethnic groups in these hills.

[9]The earliest known residents of the area are the Palaiyar (meaning "old ones", incorrectly translated as Paliyan), a Tamil-speaking tribal people, who have been seen in the past 35 years living in small caves in the valley.

Historically close extended Palaiyar family groups foraged and hunted at least 128 forest species for subsistence.

In the past century, they increasingly depended on shifting cultivation and collection and trading of non timber forest products of over 60 species for: food (14), incense & toiletries (11) medicines (13), construction materials & precious woods (9) and miscellaneous (13) honey, tubers, fruits, herbs, flowers, bark, seeds, fibers, gum, leaves, logs and oils.

They must now depend on intermittent plantation labor, primitive low yield cultivation in restricted areas, liaisons with forest product smugglers and poachers, government programs and charity.

[12][13] The villages have no link roads, no electricity (some solar lamps have been installed recently), no running water, no government school, no medical facilities and no shops.

[17] Thalinji village at 533 metres (1,749 ft), near the bottom of the valley above the banks of the Ten Ar River, has about 150 houses (pop: m-168, f-155).

This place had some importance in medieval times, as there are mounds with 15th century ruins of a Vijayanagar Dynasty[1] p. 267 Kondaiaman temple[5] with a substantial temple tank, and numerous scattered stone carvings and broken statues of goddesses such as Kondaiamman and Mariamman and gods Ganesha, and Krishna, with some text inscriptions.

The people do not integrate well in the modern society and economy, though they have accepted Photovoltaic powered home lighting devices from the District collector.

Manjampatti village at 730 metres (2,400 ft), near the middle of the valley has 59 households with 191 persons (95 males and 96 females)[18] dispersed among its many agricultural fields located inside a bend of the Ten Ar just below its junction with the Kumbar and Manalaar streams.

There is a basic primary school of a type designed for tribal people, which is able to provide Transfer Certificates (TC) to students.

[19] The village has a Moopan (headman), assisted by a group of elder men, who organizes activities such as maintaining irrigation channels and resolving disputes, but this position is not recognized in the Panchayat system.

Manjampatti was given land for cultivation when the Reserved Forest was created and the families have kept their respective fields marked with the original stone boundaries.

The crops now are rice in rainy season and butter beans otherwise, though with a more diverse population a few vegetables such as eggplant and tomatoes are grown.

Their limited income comes from selling bamboo products and lemon grass oil, which they spend to buy rice from other villages.

This Valley forms the southeast part of Anaimalai Reserve Forest, in Udumalaipettai Block, Coimbatore District,[22] about 13 km south of Amaravathi Reservoir and Dam on SH 17 and 30 km West of Kodaikanal at the western border of Dindigul District in the Palni Hills of the Western Ghats mountain range.

Elevation ranges from The valley is surrounded by a ridgeline connecting several prominent peaks listed in order clockwise from the northwest corner.

[5] The western ridge of Manjampatti Valley extends 2 km into the easternmost area of Idukki District, Kerala and adjoins the 90 km2 Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary.

[5] The Kudiraiyar River basin, including Kukkal village, is just over the northeast ridge of the valley below Vellari Malai.

In colonial times Indian tigers (Tamil: puli or புலி ) were common in this area and as recently as the 1950s the Raja of Puthukkottai would go out from his house in Kodaikanal and hunt them.

There are several herds of gaur (popularly called bison) (Tamil: kaattu erumai, "forest buffalo") in the valley.