The town of Kodaikanal sits on a plateau above the southern escarpment of the upper Palani Hills at , between the Parappar and Gundar Valleys. These hills form the eastward spur of the Western Ghats on the western side of South India. It has an irregular basin as its heartland, the centre of which is now Kodaikanal Lake a circumference manmade lake. A few kilometres away from Kodaikanal a small village named Vattakanal is located in the Dindigul District on the southern tip of the upper Palani hills in the state of Tamil Nadu, along the eastern coast of the Western Ghats.