Wayanad

Overview

Wayanad is a plateau district in the north-east of Kerala, bordering Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, with its headquarters at Kalpetta. The land lies between 700 m and 2,100 m, which suits walkers, wildlife watchers and anyone drawn to coffee and pepper country, and a Wayanad tour is easiest from October to May, outside the June to September rains.

Edakkal is the district's best-known site, on Ambukutty Mala near Sultan Bathery. It is less a cave than a rock shelter, a cleft roughly 29 m by 6.7 m under a huge capping boulder, and its walls carry petroglyphs of people, animals and tools, along with symbols nobody has deciphered. The carvings are placed anywhere from about 6,000 BCE to 1,000 BCE. Banasura Sagar, at Padinjarathara, is a 38.5 m earth dam on the Karamanthodu river, finished in 2004. Its reservoir drowned the surrounding hillside and left islands standing in the water, and Banasura Hill rises behind it, about 20 km from Kalpetta.

Two outings suit people on foot. Chembra Peak, at 2,100 m the highest summit among the Wayanad hills, is climbed from Meppadi, with a heart-shaped lake along the route; guides come through a forest development agency, and the rules shift with season, so arrange it through the proper office. Soochipara, also called Sentinel Rock Falls, drops about 200 m in three tiers on the Vellarimala slopes, with a drive from Meppadi followed by a walk of around 1.2 km.

Wildlife sits mainly in the east. Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, set up in 1973, spans about 344 sq km in four ranges (Sulthan Bathery, Muthanga, Kurichiat and Tholpetty) and adjoins Bandipur, Nagarhole and Mudumalai across the state lines. Elephants, tigers, leopards and gaur live in its moist deciduous and semi-evergreen forest. Forest staff control access, so confirm what is open before you travel.

The name comes from Vayal Nadu, the land of paddy fields, and the district ranks first in Kerala for pepper and coffee. Eight scheduled tribes live here, the Paniyan being the largest group, and the Kabini river, a Kaveri tributary that flows east, begins in these hills. Kalpetta's daily highs average 27.3 C and lows 19.0 C across the year, with about 3,500 mm of rain. By road, National Highway 766 links the district to Kozhikode, 72 km from Kalpetta, over the Thamarassery pass.

Known for

A rock shelter on Ambukutty Mala with carvings from about 6,000 to 1,000 BCE