Munnar is set in the hills of Kerala, which were known as the High Range of Travancore.

There are substantial tea estates nestling between the peaks, established by the British.

We had a brief visit here, during a free day after travelling to Adimali, and before our next workshop began.

It was interesting to see these estates, in comparison to those of Kericho in Kenya.

My overall feeling was one of neglect, with soil erosion clearly apparent on some of the oldest estates.

There was some interesting intercropping with trees, and limited vetiver planting (to reduce soil erosion).

The estates have been operating at a loss for some years.
Shortly after our visit the dominant owner, Tata Tea, annnounced plans to cut back on its holdings in India.

Increasing quantities of tea are now being grown in China (where it originally came to India from, via the British).

A conservationist friend, Ansil, showed us Erivikulam National Park.

He explained the history of the park, and current problems with water pollution from neighbouring tea estates.

We got a glimpse of the Nilgiri tahr , an intriguing relative of early sheep and goats (bottom right below).

We could walk up the side of one main peak, but there wasn't ready access to most of the park's hilly grasslands.
These are man-made - left behind after deforestation for tea planting, which was unsuccessful at these higher altitudes.

Only pockets of original shola forest remain, dense canopies of its short trees shading in the stream beds.

within the shade of the dense, cool shola forest

The park was due for a spectacular twelve-yearly flowering of pale blue flowers in August, carpeting the hills in colour.

There were a lot of local and foreign tourists around Munnar, at the park and the nearby dams.

 

Some elephants had been drafted to provide rides near one of the dam walls

Kerala is full of waterways, dams and lakes. We saw plunging waterfalls during a madcap bus ride from Adimali, careering round the edges of a steep valley.

We took in a few dams before finishing our visit with a relaxed pedal-boat ride, with some beautiful backdrops.