Availability Period :- March, April, May, June, July, August, Sep.
Munnar is a town in the Western Ghats mountain range in India’s Kerala state. A hill station and former resort for the British Raj elite, it's surrounded by rolling hills dotted with tea plantations established in the late 19th century. Eravikulam National Park, a habitat for the endangered mountain goat Nilgiri tahr, is home to the Lakkam Waterfalls, hiking trails and 2,695m-tall Anamudi Peak.
Munnar is a town and hill station located in the Idukki district of the southwestern Indian state of Kerala. Munnar is situated at around 1,600 metres (5,200 ft) above mean sea level, in the Western Ghats range of mountains.
History
The early history of Munnar is not perfectly known today. The early inhabitants of the region are members of the Muthuvan tribal community. However, it remained a wild and unexplored landscape till the later half of 19th century when ambitious planters from as far as Europe started plantations here. It is believed that sage Vashistha retired to the southern spur at Mount Abu following his differences with sage Vishvamitra. There is another mythology according to which a serpent named "Arbuda" saved the life of Nandi (Lord Shiva's bull). The incident happened on the mountain that is currently known as Mount Abu and so the mountain is named "Arbudaranya" after that incident which gradually became Abu.Munnar came to be known to the outside world in the 1870s with the visit of the British Resident of the then Travancore kingdom John Daniel Munro. Munro, who visited the place as part of settling the border dispute between Travancore and the nearby state of Madras literally fell for the beauty of the region. Though the Munnar region fell under the jurisdiction of the Travancore kingdom, it was the jenmam land of Poonjar royal family. Since it was a ‘jenmam land’ the royal family enjoyed absolute powers over the land as the landlord.
Munro had a great interest in plantation. Of the several hills in the region, he found the Kanan Devan hills with high potential for plantation crops. Without wasting any time Munro visited the Poonjar Palace and met the then head of the royal family, Rohini Thirunal Kerala Varma Valiya Raja, fondly called as Kela Varma Raja. The entrepreneur in Munro won the confidence of Kela Varma Raja and he agreed to lease out Kanan Devan hills to Munro for a handsome payment.In 1924, the plantations of Munnar suffered a major setback in the form a disastrous monsoon. Heavy landslides and flooding literally redrew the landscape in several places. There was a heavy loss of property and life. Though it was hard for them, the inhabitants managed to bring back life to a normal in a few months. Large-scale replanting was carried out in several estates.
| state |
Kerala,India |
| Country |
India |
| Area |
187 km2 (72 sq mi) |
| Languages spoken |
Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi and English |
| Currency |
Ruppee |