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Topography
The topography of the park mainly consists of the western ghat hills in various shapes and sizes. These thickly wooded hills are interspersed by water bodies, vast grasslands and even thicker forest cover. There is one main lake formed due to the creation of the dam on the river Periyar. The visibility of branches emerging out this lake like ghostly fingers on misty winter mornings is an indication of the submerged forest there. Some of the deeper valleys contain tropical evergreen forest with extremely thick tree cover that even bright sunlight finds hard to penetrate. These trees that have grown to amazing heights of up to 130-140 feet give the impression of having being there forever and witnessed the many changes to have occurred in the area. These densely forested valleys abound in wild vegetation and animal life. The few level areas in the park consist of marshy grasslands near the edges of the lake and other water bodies. Other than the river periyar, the park and main lake are irrigated and fed by two other rivers, the Azhutha and the Mullayar. Spread out across the park are also patches of semi-evergreen forest used as important cover by many of the animal species.