Articles > India's Southern Hills

Beyond the sun-drenched beaches of Kerala, the Southern Ghats greet you like a breath of fresh air, all cool mountain tops, waterfalls and forests teeming with wild life and quaint hill stations dotted among tea plantations and spice gardens.

Cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper and cloves leave their scent in the air while cardamom spreads in the shade, carpeting the hills bearing its name, yielding 70% of India’s production. But when you climb up the steep slopes towards Munnar, tea bushes turn every inch of the land emerald green.

Until the middle of the 19th century, these jungle mountains were the domain of tribal gatherers and hunters. Colonel Wellesly, the future Duke of Wellington, had passed through in 1790 but true exploration began only a century later when Officer Munro recruited pioneer planters, most of them Scots, to clear the ground. The Finlay Muir Company moved in with Tamil labourers, opting for tea after early attempts at quinine and rubber. Prior to the opening of a light railway, later destroyed by floods, and the road, tea was carried down by ropeway to be packed in chests especially sent from Britain.

Up there in the hills, the tea pickers start work soon after dawn, women in bright saris plucking only tender buds and top two leaves for best quality, tossing them dexterously into the baskets strapped to their back. Later the tea is withered, rolled, sifted, left to ferment and dried. It’s hot noisy work in the factory as men shovel great heaps of leaves from the floor into the machines but if you want to know where your favourite cuppa comes from, that’s a good place to start.

Perched at 5420 feet, in the lush estates of the Annamali Hills, or Elephant Mountains, Munnar is a lovely spot to relax, poised at the meeting point of three rivers. You may well stumble upon an old church with rosewood pews and chandelier and the High Range Club, all wicker and teak in colonial style, oozing nostalgia in its gentlemen’s bar and billiards room. Among these cool hill stations, look out for the little town of Devikulam by the pretty ‘Lake of the Goddess’, Peermade, once the summer retreat of Travancore Rajas and Ponmudi in the Golden Hills where pastel-coloured roofs glint above a precipitous ‘World of Stones’, a scenic day trip from the coast.

At the north eastern tip of Kerala, Wayanad has a charm of its own. In this far away corner blessed by luxuriant plantations and abundant rivers, the local tribes have retained their lifestyle, their ancient rituals and bartering traditions jealously guarded by venerated chiefs. Historians believe civilisation in these parts may go back over 3000 years and in the Edakkal Caves, carvings and pictorial writings bear witness to a distant past.

Spend the night in a tree house or chill out in a hotel but wherever you are in the Highlands, you’re sure to wake up to birdsong, tumbling waters and a wealth of fragrance rising from the slopes. Nature is on the doorstep.

It’s a trekkers’ paradise, as long as you avoid the summer monsoon, and you can even climb Anamudi, the highest peak towering at 8839 feet. But don’t rush, for there is much wildlife to observe in the many reserves scattered across the hills. North of Munnar, the Eravikulam National Park is home to endangered mountain goats, sambar deer, langur monkeys, the odd leopard or tiger keeping well out of sight and the Atlas, the largest moths in the world.

Or explore the Nelliyampathy range with its ridges and valleys filled with evergreen and orange trees, and the nearby wildlife sanctuary of Parambikulam claiming the largest population of wild bison, besides spotted deer, long-tailed macaques, Nilgiri langurs and sloth bears. Stop for a while as you wander through hills and vales and you might see a fairy bluebird, a Malabar hornbill, a Brahmini kite, or hear the hill mynah calling in the tree tops. There are wild orchids and medicinal plants, rare flowers which blossom once every twelve years and 100 species of butterflies in Silent Valley alone. The Chinnar Sanctuary protects some of the last grizzled giant squirrels and star tortoises but the largest reserve is Periyar where herds of wild elephants gather by the lake at dusk and Hanuman monkeys chatter in the trees. It’s one of the oldest tigers’ sanctuary in India, covering 300 square miles, at altitudes ranging from 3000 to well over 6000 feet.

Enjoy a picnic and gaze at fantastic views, ride an elephant along the quiet trails or take a boat out on the lake then at the end of the day, when myriad eyes peer through the bushes and invisible creatures rustle in the undergrowth, it’s time to spice up your life with a delicious Kerala curry and a cup or two of your favourite brew.

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