Most of Kerala, whose native habitat consists of wet evergreen rain forests at lower elevations and highland deciduous and semi-evergreen forests in the east, is subject to a humid tropical climate.Most of Kerala's significantly biodiverse tracts of wilderness lie in the evergreen forests of its easternmost districts;coastal Kerala (along with portions of the east) mostly lies under cultivation and is home to comparatively little wildlife. Despite this, Kerala contains 9,400 km² of natural forests. Out of the approximately 7,500 km² of non-plantation forest cover, there are wild regions of tropical wet evergreen and semi-evergreen forests, tropical moist and dry deciduous forests , and montane subtropical and temperate (shola) forests. Such forests together cover 24% of Kerala's landmass.Kerala also hosts two of the world’s Ramsar Convention-listed wetlands: Lake Sasthamkotta and the Vembanad-Kol wetlands are noted as being wetlands of international importance. There are also numerous protected conservation areas, including 1455.4 km² of the vast Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve.
Eastern Kerala’s windward mountains shelter tropical moist forests and tropical dry forests which are generally characteristic of the wider Western Ghats: crowns of giant sonokeling Indian rosewood), anjili, mullumurikku,Cassia, and other trees dominate the canopies of large tracts of virgin forest. Overall, Kerala's forests are home to more than 1,000 species of trees. Smaller flora include bamboo, wild black pepper, wild cardamom, the calamus rattan palm and aromatic Vetiver grass.
The forests play host to such major fauna as Asian Elephant, Bengal Tiger, Leopard , and Nilgiri Tahr and Grizzled Giant Squirrel .More remote preserves, including Silent
Valley National Park in the Kundali Hills, harbor endangered species such as Lion-tailed Macaque, Indian Sloth Bear and Gaur. More common species include Indian Porcupine , Chital , Sambar, Gray Langur, Flying Squirrel, Swamp Lynx , Boar, a variety of catarrhine Old World monkey species, Gray Wolf , Common Palm Civet.
Many reptiles, such as king cobra, viper, python, various turtles and crocodiles are to be found in Kerala — again, disproportionately in the east. Kerala has about 453 species of birds such as the Sri Lanka Frogmouth, Oriental Bay Owl, large frugivores like the Great Hornbill and Indian Grey Hornbill, as well as the more widespread birds such as Peafowl, Indian Cormorant, Jungle and Hill Myna, Oriental Darter, Black-hooded Oriole, Greater Racket-tailed and Black Drongoes, bulbul , species of Kingfisher and Woodpecker, Jungle Fowl, Alexandrine Parakeet, and assorted ducks and migratory birds. Additionally, freshwater fish such as kadu and brackishwater species such as Choottachi also are native to Kerala's lakes and waterways.
