Valparai is located 3800 feet above sea level on the Anamalai Hills, a mountain range on the Western Ghats, 100 kilometers from the nearest airport, Coimbatore. A small plantation town, the people of Valparai are mainly plantation workers who live within the tea, coffee and cinchona plantations that make the area. Valparai is mostly carpeted with tea plantations and is renowned across Southern India as among the most productive tea growing regions in South India. Apart from a salubrious climate year round, Valparai is bordered by the Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary, making it a haven to sight wildlife of all kinds. The Sanctuary is home to the Indian Elephant, Wild Gaur (Bison), Leopards, the endangered Lion – Tailed Macaque and rare birds including the Great Indian Hornbill. Sightings of herds of Wild Gaur (Bison) , Elephants are common on the periphery of the sanctuary at Valparai. The endangered Lion Tailed Macaque is a common sight within the private forest at Puthuthottam Estate and so is the Great Indian Hornbill.