A reserve built around a lake made by a dam in 1895, where the drowned forest still stands in the water, and the spice hills start at the gate.
Where you actually are
Thekkady is the settlement at the edge of the Periyar Tiger Reserve, and the reserve is organised around a lake that did not exist before 1895. The Mullaperiyar dam was built in that decade to divert Periyar water east through the Ghats into the Vaigai basin in Tamil Nadu, and the reservoir it created flooded a valley of standing forest. The bleached trunks still rooted in the water are the visual signature of the place and a direct record of what the dam did.
The reserve covers a large tract of the Cardamom Hills at roughly 900 to 1,200 metres around the lake, rising higher at the margins, and it forms part of the continuous Western Ghats forest belt that runs across the Kerala and Tamil Nadu border. Elephant, gaur, sambar and a long bird list are the realistic expectations. Tiger is present and is the reason for the reserve's status, but sightings are rare and should be treated as such.
The nearest town is Kumily, on the state border, and in practice Kumily and Thekkady function as one place: the bus stand, the shops, the spice trade and most of the accommodation are in Kumily, and the reserve entrance is a short distance down the road. Cross the border and the language, the food and the signage change within a couple of kilometres, which is one of the more interesting things about basing here.
Three reasons to stay rather than pass through
- Ranger-led walks and the early boat are the two ways to see the lake, and they are booked at the visitor centre.
- Spice smallholdings on the road up are working farms, not demonstration gardens.
- The Tamil Nadu border is minutes away, so the food changes within a few kilometres.
The lake, the boat and the better alternative
The standard Periyar experience is the government boat trip on the lake, and it is worth doing with clear expectations. It is a large vessel, it follows a fixed route, and animals are seen from the water at a distance rather than close up. Early departures are the ones worth taking, because animals come to the water in the cool hours and the light is better.
The much better product is the ranger led programme. The reserve runs guided activities of varying lengths and difficulty, from short nature walks to full day hikes and border patrol style overnight programmes, all accompanied by staff who are frequently drawn from local communities under the reserve's participatory management arrangements. These are limited in number, they are released through the reserve's own booking channels, and the desk at the visitor centre is where the day's availability is actually settled.
Because the numbers are small and the demand is not, the practical advice is to arrive with the activity as the first task of the trip rather than the last. Hours and availability are set by the reserve authority and change seasonally, so the reserve's own published information is the only source worth planning against.
Cardamom country, and working farms
The road up to Kumily climbs through the Cardamom Hills, and the smallholdings along it grow cardamom, pepper, coffee, nutmeg, clove and vanilla in mixed plantings under shade. These are working farms. Several take visitors, and the good ones explain crop cycles, curing and grading rather than staging a walk past labelled plants.
Cardamom is the crop that gives the hills their name and the one with the most visible processing: curing sheds, grading floors and the auction trade that moves the crop out of the district. Pepper grows up the same shade trees, which is why a single plot can look chaotic and be highly organised.
Buying here is straightforward and worth doing, because the crop is local and the difference between fresh estate cardamom and a supermarket packet is obvious. The usual caution about spice shops applies: the farms and the co-operatives are better than the shopfronts on the main road.
Two states, two kitchens, one road
Kumily sits on the state line, and the border is a real cultural edge rather than an administrative one. On the Kerala side the kitchen is coconut, rice and fish based with the Syrian Christian and Muslim repertoires of the central hills. A short distance east into Tamil Nadu the food turns to Madurai style: heavier on chilli and tamarind, different breads, different breakfast.
That proximity also shapes the transport. Traffic between Madurai and Kochi passes through, which is why bus connections here are better than the remoteness suggests, and why the town is busier than a reserve gate settlement would otherwise be.
What not to book
Thekkady is the destination in Kerala where the gap between the good and the bad product is widest. Elephant rides and captive animal photo opportunities are offered around the reserve edge, and they sit outside anything the reserve's own programme does. Visitors who care about the reserve's conservation record should book through the reserve rather than through a roadside operator.
The same applies to plantation visits and spice tours. The reserve's participatory ecotourism programmes are designed so that revenue reaches the communities around the forest, and that is a defensible reason to prefer them over a private tour of the same forest edge.
Where inside it to stay
The year, in bands
Getting here
Getting around
What there is to do, and why
What the kitchen does here
October to March for wildlife around the lake. The reserve stays open through the monsoon.
What it is not
The case against, in the same voice as the case for. Every destination on this site carries one, because a page that only recommends is not much use for deciding.
Two resorts, two hotels, four and five star
Each property below opens its own booking page on IMPT, not a page of search results. That is the whole journey, destination to property to booked.