Georgi P Mathechan Periyar National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary (PNP) is a protected area located in the districts of Idukki and Pathanamthitta in Kerala, India.

The park is a repository of rare, endemic, and endangered flora and fauna and forms the major watershed of two important rivers of Kerala: the Periyar and the Pamba.

[2] The first official action towards the conservation of wildlife and biodiversity in Kerala was taken in 1934 by the Maharaja of Travancore, Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, by declaring the forests around Periyar lake as a private reserve to stop the encroachment of tea plantations.

From this level the altitude drops steeply to the deepest point of the reserve, the 100 metre valley of the Pamba River.

The sanctuary surrounds Periyar Lake, a reservoir measuring 31 km2 (12 sq mi),[7] which was formed when the Mullaperiyar Dam was erected in 1895.

The reservoir and the Periyar River meander around the contours of the wooded hills, providing a permanent source of water for the local wildlife.

Forests found here are composed of deciduous, evergreen and semi evergreen trees like teak, rosewoods, terminalia, sandalwoods, mangoes, jamun, tamarind, banyans, sacred fig, kino tree, bamboos, Diospyros bourdillonii, Hopea parviflora, Dipterocarpus indicus, Semecarpus travancoricus and the only south Indian conifer, Nageia wallichiana.

[12] A four-day survey conducted on 1–4 December 2016, organised under the aegis of the Periyar Tiger Reserve (PTR), found the presence of 13 new bird and 16 butterfly species that were undetected earlier.

The newly found bird species included Eurasian woodcock (Scolopax rusticola), steppe gull (Larus fuscus barbensis), grey-necked bunting (Emberiza bruniceps) and paddyfield warbler (Acrocephalus agricola).

[16] A survey jointly conducted by the Periyar Tiger Conservation Foundation, Indian Dragonfly Society and the Forest and Wildlife Department in October 2017 found 77 species of odonata, including the Asian emerald (Hemicordulia asiatica).

[19] It is estimated that the Periyar Tiger Reserve (PTR) provides flow benefits worth 17.6 billion rupees (1.9 lakh (190,000)/hectare) annually.