Thursday, January 21, 2010

Thekkady - a tourist place in Kerala

Thekkady is an important tourist place of kerala located at an altitude of 900 to 1800 meters above sea level. Main tourist attractions of Thekkady are Periyar National Park, Thekkady Lake, Boating, The evergreen forests, Wild animals etc.

Periyar wildlife sanctuary is very dense evergreen forest spread 777 squire kms area declared as Tiger reserve in 1978. Periyar wildlife sanctuary is famous for its evergreen forests, savannah grass lands and wild animals elephants, sambar, gaur, Nilgiri langurs, tigers, wild boars, lion tailed macaques...

The sanctuary is situated around an artificial lake formed by Mullaperiyar Dam accross the Periyar River. The herds of elephants playing in Lake is a wonderful sight while boating through the Periyar lake.

Thekkady is also known for plantations of various natural spices like black pepper,clove,cardamom,cinnamon,chilly,tamarind etc. Forest department,Kerala tourism development corporation(KTDC) and many private agencies offers many programs to promote adventure tourism in Thekkady.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Munnar - a beautiful Hill station in Kerala

Munnar is one of the most popular tourist places in Kerala, located 1600m above sea level in southern “Western Ghats” (A mountain range in the west of India). Munnar is situated at the confluence of Mudrapuzha, Nallathanni and Kundala rivers. The speciality of Munnar is its cool climate and greenery. A vast area of Munnar is occupied by tea plantations and evergreen jungles.

The Whole hill area is known as "High range" and rarely “Kannan Devan Hills”. In the age of British empire they developed this area to cultivate tea plants. The Bungalows built by them are still there in use.

Several Protected Wildlife areas in Munnar attract many tourists. You can see several threatened and native species like Nilgiri Tahr (Hemitragus hylocrius), Grizzled Giant Squirrel, Nilgiri Wood Pigeon, Gaur, Sambar and Neelakurinji here.

Neelakurinji (Strobilanthes kunthiana) is a rare kind of plant blooms once in 12 years. Eravikulam National park is known for Neelakurinji, Nilgiri Tahr and a few other protected species. Neelakurinji last bloomed in 2006. A vast area of mountain covered with Neelakurinji, giving the whole area a blue shade is an amazing spectacle for the visitors…

Many residents of here are employed in Tourism business. In Munnar there are above 3000 small and big resorts and several small hotels and restaurants.