Munnar

Munnar sits at 1,600 metres in the Western Ghats, surrounded by the largest tea-growing estate in the world, and the specific geometry of the Tata Tea plantations — terraced rows of bush following every contour of every hill in every direction — is unlike any other agricultural landscape in India.

The tea bush was introduced to the Munnar hills in the 1870s, and by the early 20th century the Kannan Devan Hills had become one of the most productive tea-growing regions in the world. The Tata Group acquired the estates in 1964 and has maintained them with a combination of commercial efficiency and colonial-era infrastructure — the bungalows, the roads, the clubs — that makes Munnar feel, in the high parts, like a hill station that time has preserved rather than abandoned.

The Eravikulam National Park, on the plateau above Munnar, protects the largest population of Nilgiri tahr — a mountain goat found nowhere else on earth — on grasslands so high and exposed that the horizon seems to be at eye level. The park is closed during calving season (February to March) and at other times is accessible by a short walk from the road, bringing visitors into direct contact with tahr so habituated to human presence that they move between tourists' legs without concern.

Places to Visit in Munnar

• Tea plantations
• Eravikulam National Park
• Mattupetty Dam
• Top Station viewpoint

Things to Do in Munnar

• Tea estate walks and factory tours
• Wildlife spotting at Eravikulam
• Viewpoint drives through the hills