Kerala's wild north — Edakkal Cave's 6,000-year-old rock art, Banasura Sagar Dam's archipelago reservoir, Chembra Peak's heart-shaped lake, and tiger territory that abuts three state borders
Wayanad (officially Wayanad district, pop. 825,000) is the highland district of northern Kerala — a plateau at 700–2,100 meters bounded by the Western Ghats on all sides and bordering Karnataka (Coorg) to the east and Tamil Nadu to the south, at the ecological heart of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. The district encompasses three wildlife sanctuaries (Wayanad, Nagarhole extension, and Mudumalai extension) creating a contiguous wildlife corridor where tigers, leopards, Indian elephants, gaur, and sloth bears move freely across state lines. Wayanad is also one of the most archaeologically signi…
Wayanad's history before European contact was shaped by the Nair, Kurichiya, and Adivasi (tribal) communities — the Kurichiya and Kuruma tribal peoples are among the most politically assertive tribal communities in Kerala, having organized an armed resistance (the Kurichiya Revolt of 1812) against British East India Company revenue collection and corvée labor demands, making them among the earliest recorded tribal uprisings against colonial rule in India. The British surveyed Wayanad in the 1820s–1830s and recognized it as ideal for coffee and tea planting; the entire Wayanad Plateau was conv…