The Anaimalais or Anamala, also known as the Elephant Mountains, are a range of mountains in the southern Western Ghats and span the border of western Tamil Nadu and central Kerala in Southern India. The name anamala is derived from the Tamil word aanai, the Malayalam word aana, meaning elephant, or from tribal languages. Mala or Malai means 'hill', and thus 'Elephant hill'.
Anamudi Peak lies at the southern end of the range and is the highest peak in southern India. The Palakkad Gap is the mountain pass which divides it from the Nilgiri Mountains. The northern slopes of the hills in Tamil Nadu now have coffee and tea plantations, as well as teak plantations of high economic value. The rest are mostly forests, of mainly two ecoregions-the South Western Ghats moist deciduous forests and the South Western Ghats montane rain forests.
The Western Ghats and Anaimalai Sub-Cluster, including the Anaimalai Hills, are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.