Sightseeing in Thekkady

Murikkady’s pepper and cardamom smallholdings roll across gentler terrain than the reserve’s forest interior, and its homestays and viewpoints have made it a popular quieter base for travellers visiting the Periyar Tiger Reserve. Murikkady sits at an elevation of 1005 m and is typically explored in about 1-2 hours. The most favourable months to visit are December, January, February, and March, when conditions are best suited for sightseeing. Nearby points of interest include Murikkady Spice Garden, Murikkady View Point, and Murikkady Tea Bazaar. Other notable highlights include guided walk through cardamom and pepper vines, sunrise view over rolling tea and spice hills, and visit a family-run spice drying yard. It falls within Thekkady, Idukki district, and Kerala, India.

Formed when the Mullaperiyar Dam flooded the valley in 1895, Periyar Lake’s still-standing dead tree trunks give it a distinctive look, and forest department boat cruises along its banks remain the reserve’s signature activity, offering the best odds of spotting elephant herds coming down to drink. Periyar Lake sits at an elevation of 867 m and is typically explored in about 2-3 hours. The most favourable months to visit are January, December, February, and March, when conditions are best suited for sightseeing. Nearby points of interest include Periyar Lake Nature Walk, Periyar Lake Boat Cruise, and Murikkady Viewpoint. Other notable highlights include elephant herds drinking at dawn shoreline, boat cruise past drowned tree stumps, and kingfisher dives near bamboo raft edge. It falls within Thekkady, Idukki district, and Kerala, India.

Established in 1982 around a lake first dammed in the 1890s, the park’s evergreen and moist deciduous forest is home to elephant, gaur, sambar and a small, elusive tiger population, with the reservoir’s boat cruises remaining the most reliable way for visitors to spot wildlife along its shoreline. Periyar National Park sits at an elevation of 1022 m and is typically explored in about 1 day. The most favourable months to visit are February, July, January, and September, when conditions are best suited for sightseeing. Nearby points of interest include Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary Interpretation Centre, Murikkady Spice Plantation Viewpoint, and Periyar Lake Boat Safari. Other notable highlights include boat safari on Periyar Lake spotting elephants, guided nature walk into the core tiger reserve, and bamboo rafting through the lake’s flooded forest edges. It falls within Thekkady, Idukki district, and Kerala, India.

Periyar National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary (PNP) is a protected area located in the districts of Idukki and Pathanamthitta in Kerala, India. It is a renowned elephant and tiger reserve. The protected area encompasses 925 km2 (357 mi2), of which 350.54 km2 (135.34 mi2) of the main zone was declared as the Periyar National Park in 1982. The park is a repository of rare, endemic, and endangered flora and fauna and forms the major watershed of two important rivers of Kerala: the Periyar and the Pamba. The park is located high in the Cardamom Hills and Pandalam Hills of the south Western Ghats along the border with Tamil Nadu.

Mullaperiyar Dam is a masonry gravity dam on the Periyar River of Kumily panchayat in Idukki district of Indian state of Kerala. It is situated 150 km south east of Kochi and 200 km north east of state capital city of Trivandrum. It is located 881 m (2,890 ft) above the sea level, on the Cardamom Hills of the Western Ghats in Thekkady, Idukki District of Kerala, India. It was constructed between 1887 and 1895 by workers under the command of Colonel John Pennycuick, and also reached in an agreement to divert water eastwards to the Madras Presidency area (present-day Tamil Nadu). It has a height of 53.6 m (176 ft) from the foundation, and a length of 365.7 m (1,200 ft).

Mangaladevi Kannagi Temple is a Hindu temple located at Mangaladevi, near the present-day border of Theni District (of Tamil Nadu) and Idukki District (Kerala), about 7 km from Pazhiyankudi in Theni District and 15 km from Thekkady in Idukki District. The temple is situated at an altitude of about 1,337 m or about 5,000 feet above sea level (within the Periyar Tiger Reserve on the Western Ghat mountains). The temple is dedicated to goddess Mangaladevi, also known as Kannagi-Pattini. Secondary shrines are dedicated to Karuppa Swamy, lord Shiva and Ganapathy. The temple is open for worship only during the time of "Chitra Poornami Festival" (in the April/May months).