Wayanad

Wayanad is a plateau of forest, paddy, coffee and pepper high in the Western Ghats, where Kerala meets Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, and its forests run unbroken into Bandipur, Nagarhole and Mudumalai. People have lived here a very long time: on the walls of the Edakkal caves, a natural rock shelter on Ambukuthi hill, are engraved human figures and symbols that are thousands of years old.

The district's later history is one of resistance and settlement. Pazhassi Raja fought the East India Company from these forests until his death in 1805; in the twentieth century migrants from the Travancore plains cleared land for cash crops. In July 2024, landslides at Mundakkai and Chooralmala killed more than two hundred people. Wayanad is recovering, and visitors are a real part of that.

Wayanad has the largest Adivasi population in Kerala — Paniya, Kurichiya, Kattunaikka, Adiya and others — whose knowledge of the forest predates everything else here. Kurichiya families still keep their archery and their large joint households; the Valliyoorkavu temple festival at Mananthavady in March has its roots in Adivasi worship. Thirunelli, an ancient Vishnu temple in the Brahmagiri hills, is reached through dense forest and draws pilgrims for rites for the dead at the Papanasini stream.

Food here is Malabar food with hill touches: Malabar biryani from Kozhikode below, appam with stew, puttu and kadala curry, and, in Adivasi homes, bamboo rice and wild greens when in season. The local coffee is robusta, grown under shade, and pepper vines climb almost every tree.

Many of Wayanad's sites now cap daily numbers, and they change opening rules often — Edakkal, Kuruva and the Chembra trek among them — so check the day before, and arrive early. Chembra is permit-only, with a forest guide, from the Meppadi forest office; go only if it is open, and take water. Edakkal is a steep climb that rewards the effort. For Tholpetty, take the first jeep safari of the morning. And do not drive the ghat roads after dark if you can help it.

Elephants and tigers move through the district; obey forest closures and never stop to photograph wildlife from the road. Visit Adivasi settlements only with an invitation or a community-run programme, and never treat people as a sight. The landslides showed how fragile these slopes are — choose stays in existing homes and estates over new construction on hillsides.

North across the border lies Coorg — the same coffee and pepper hills, with Kodava food, estate homestays and the Kaveri's source at Talakaveri, a few hours' drive by way of the Brahmagiri side.