Keralatrips - Content

About Kerala

Idukki

Idukki derived its name from the Malayalam word 'idukku' meaning narrow gorge. It is located in the southern part of Kerala. Idukki is a landlocked district spread over an area of 5019 sq kms. Idukki offers various attractions like wildlife sanctuaries, hill stations, spice plantation centres and mountain treks. The river Pamba originates in the mountains of Idukki. It has the highest ranges of altitude varying from 2500 feet to over 5000 feet above sea level. It has about 1500 sq ft of reserved forest. These forests are a source of teak wood, rose wood and sandalwood. They also have tigers, deer, bison and monkeys.

Places to Visit

Thekkady

Thekkady (Idukki district) is the location of the Periyar National Park, which is an important tourist attraction in the Kerala. The sanctuary is famous for its dense evergreen, semi-evergreen, moist deciduous forests and savanna grass lands. It is home to herds of elephants, sambar, tigers, gaur, lion-tailed Macaques, and Nilgiri Langurs. The Periyar Wildlife sanctuary is spread across 777 km² (300 sq. miles), of which 360 km² (139 sq. miles) is thick evergreen forest. The Periyar Wild Life Sanctuary was declared a Tiger Reserve in 1978. The splendid artificial lake formed by the Mullaperiyar Dam across the Periyar River adds to the charm of the park. The greatest attraction of Periyar is the herds of wild elephants that come down to play in the lake.

Kumily

Kumily is a town in the Cardamom Hills near Thekkady and the Periyar Tiger Reserve, in the Idukki District of Kerala. It is a major tourist destination. The aroma of spices will follow you in your Kumily tour. Kumily is a beautiful tourist attraction and is situated only 4 km from Thekkady. The best way to admire the beauty of the sanctuary is through panoramic boat trip. Famous for its spice plantations, this beautiful backwater spot is located at close proximity to Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary.

Munnar

Munnar is located in the Idukki district. As the name suggests Munnar is the meeting place of three rivers. The three mountain streams joining together here are Madurapuzha, Nallathanni and Kundala. There are tea estates, hills, lakes and forests inside Munnar. The tea plants covered Munnar hills makes the feeling of seeing a wide green carpet. There is a protected areas nearby for the endemic species and these include the new Kurinjimala Sanctuary to the east, Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary and Manjampatti Valley in Amaravati reserve forest of Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary to the north east, Eravikulam National Park and Anamudi Shola National Park to the north, Pampadum Shola National Park to the south and the proposed Palani Hills National Park to the east. These protected areas are especially known for several threatened and endemic species including Nilgiri Thar, Grizzled Giant Squirrel, Nilgiri Wood-pigeon, Elephant, Gaur, Sambar, and Neelakurinji

Mattupetty

Mattupetty is situated at an altitude of 1700 m above sea level and is 13 kms from Munnar. Mattupetty is famous for its dam, which is created by a small hydroelectric project. The dam has steep rolling hills and woods all around. Boating facilities are available in Mattupetty dam. The boating facility in Mattupetty is operated by the DTPC(District Tourism Promotion Council) Idukki. Boats of all kind like speed boats, row boats, pedal boats, motor boats are accessible in Mattupetty dam. Mattupetty is also famous for the tea plantations and the lake. A cattle breeding centre-cum-dairy project (a joint project between India and Switzerland) situated here offers a realistic insight into the modern cattle breeding industry. Over 100 varieties of high yielding cattle are reared here. Visitors are allowed into three of the eleven cattle sheds at the farm. Boating facilities are available in the reservoir. Mattupetty is a great place, excellent for trekking and is a habitat to a variety of birds.

Marayoor

Around 40 km from Munnar, Marayoor is the only place in Kerala with natural growth of sandalwood trees. The sandalwood factory of the forest department of Kerala, the caves (muniyaras) with the murals and relics from the new Stone Age civilization and the children's park spread across a hectare of land under the canopy of a single banyan tree, are the main attractions. The history of Marayoor begins with 10000 BC. Marayoor is said to be a part of the stone age civilization. The muniyaras in Marayoor belongs to Megalithic age. The name Marayoor is said to be derived from two words “mara” and “oor”, in Tamil and Malayalam languages “mara” means hidden and “oor” means land. Legend has it the great Pandavas of Mahabharata epic, had stayed in the area during their exile and so the place was named as ‘Maranjirunna oor’ or the land (they) hide. Later it became the land’s name “Marayoor.” Another argument is that the name Marayoor is derived from the words “mala” and “oor”, “mala” means mountain and “oor” means land, hence it was meant to be “the land of the mountains”, as the land is surrounded by mountains.

Chinnar

Chinnar is located about 60 km from Munnar. It is a thorny scrub forest with xerophyte species. The Chinnar wildlife sanctuary is located 18 kms north of Marayoor. Chinnar is the habitat for the endangered Giant Grizzled Squirrel of India. The last world count of these squirrels was less than 200. Located in the rain shadow area of the Western Ghats, unlike other sanctuaries in Kerala, Chinnar gets only 48 days of rain every year. It is rich in wildlife and forests here are ideal for trekking. Trek paths most commonly used are the Chinnar – Chullipetty and Chinnar – Koottar. Trekking to the Dolmens, the megalithic burial sites of tribal communities in Alampatti, can be arranged. Daytime sighting of crocodiles and boars is possible while hiking along the riverside. The trail will also take you to the enchanting Thoovanam falls and to the watchtower in Jellimalai. The lofty Chinnar Watch Tower has a panoramic view of the entire sanctuary, and beyond to the jungles of Tamil Nadu to the east and the majestic hills of the Western Ghats in all directions.

Related Topics

Alappuzha (Alleppey)
Ernakulam
Kannur
Kasaragod
Kollam (Quilon)
Kottayam
Kozhikode (Calicut)
Malappuram
Palakkad
Pathanamthitta
Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum)
Thrissur (Trichur)
Prominent Tourist Spots in Kerala
Wayanad

About Us

KeralaTrips.com is a web-based vacation and holiday booking solution that caters to tourists wishing to visit Kerala and other destinations of India. We offer some popular vacation packages and also offer customized tours based on customer requirement. You can chart out your own tour with our help. You can suggest your preference and we will come up with an ideal holiday package for you. We offer personalized services to our clients, so as to ensure their complete satisfaction.

KeralaTrips.com is eCommerce enabled, so you can securely pay for your chosen tour package online. We use PayPal as our payment gateway that accepts credit cards and direct PayPal transfers.

KeralaTrips.com is brought to you by QBurst Technologies in association with one of the leading tour operators from South India. QBurst is a software and product services company based in Trivandrum, India with offices in Technopark and Pattom. Founded in 2004, QBurst has helped roll out several successful internet ventures for its clients in the US and Europe.

KeralaTrips.com lay great emphasis on responsible and mindful travel that calls for protecting the local environment and culture. We have always believed that there is a moral responsibility on travelers to make sure that the local environment, culture and heritage are not adversely affected. We also strive towards making positive contribution to the local ethos, customs and community, ensuring a rewarding, inspiring and positive travel experience.

We at KeralaTrips are committed to protect the privacy of our customers. The 'Privacy Policy' provides users of the website the terms associated with the usage and fortification of all personal information that has been collected from them. The word 'personal information' here means, any kind of information that has been collected and that which can be associated with a particular individual or person. We, at KeralaTrips, do not engage in renting out or selling or sharing personal information of our customers with any third party and this information which is collected will not be used for any purpose other than to resolve matters identified in your query.

KeralaTrips will share personal information about you with other companies, parties or people only when we have your full consent to share the information, or we are bound to share information for providing products or services, which you have requested. We may also need to share information with service partners or agents to respond to your comments or to resolve service issues. We may also need to share your personal information if we have to answer or respond to requests from any Indian or foreign government, agency, authority or officer or in order to respond to orders from the court or during a legal process.

Domain information of visitors are collected as part of our analysis of the use of this site. These data enable us to analyze the customers visiting the site or how often they visit, and what parts of the site they visit more frequently. This information shall be used to improve our Web-based offerings. The information is automatically collected and no actions on your part are required. As you access our site you are granting your unconditional consent to allow us to collect your domain names.

"Cookies," are also used in some pages on the site. Cookies are small files that the site places on the customer's hard drive for identification purposes. These files are used for site registration and customization the next time the customer visits the site.

KeralaTrips would also like to inform you that the above mentioned Privacy Policy is not totally invariable. We may require to update it or make changes to it from time to time. Users of the site are advised to check the same on a regular basis.

KeralaTrips may encompass links to various other sites. These links are not by any means endorsements of any products or services in such sites, and no information contained in these sites have been endorsed or approved by KeralaTrips. We also reserve the right to terminate any link or linking program at any time and if you decide to access any third party sites which are linked to this site, you do so completely at your own risk. The contents provided in the site have been made by us and the photographs placed in the pages have been taken by us or individuals known to us or have been scanned from publicly available images. We are not aware of any possible copyright violation whatsoever and if any such act is brought to our attention with solid proof, we will be ready to remove the particular item from the site.

User Agreement: The site holds no responsibility whatsoever, for any kind of error, omission, or misrepresentation on the site or those of the sites linked to KeralaTrips. The advertisements shown the site enjoys no endorsements from the site. Anyone using the site are requested to ascertain the validity of the information provided on the linked websites before making use of it.

Usage of Services: KeralaTrips holds no responsibility whatsoever for screening, censoring or controlling dealings to which it is not a party. Anyone using the site warrants to accept all procedures and guidelines, as set from time to time that applies to the use of the service. They also warrant to comply with all laws and regulations applicable to the site, related to the usage of services.

Agreement between User and KeralaTrips: KeralaTrips reserves the right to terminate, at any point of time and without giving any prior notice, access to the website. Such an action will be under the sole discretion of the site. The site can also terminate access to any of the related services or any portion thereof, at anytime and without any prior notice of the act.

Non-Commercial and Personal Use: All contents provided in the site are for personal and non-commercial, use only and any one using the site are not allowed to copy, alter, distribute, transmit, display, perform, reproduce or publish, transfer, or sell any information available on the site, for commercial purposes.

Terms of Use & Modification: KeralaTrips has the complete right to change its 'Terms of Use', at any time, without issuing any prior notice of the same. Users are recommended to review the terms and conditions provided on the site, on a periodic basis, to keep themselves updated.

Liaison: The provisions of the terms and conditions mentioned herein cannot be deemed to constitute a partnership between KeralaTrips and its user.

The contents provided in the 'Terms of Use' do not fully describe, interpret, define or limit the scope, extent or intent of the provisions whatsoever.