Marayoor Sandalwood Forest, Munnar

Kerala is known to be the most serenely beautiful destination of Southern India. Every traveller dreams to be there to spend some exotic holidays with their family and friends. They make their tour planning long before the actual time to travel just to make sure that no exciting places get missed from their travel-list. And, Munnar is such a place that you would not want to miss making a visit.

When you are in Munnar, Kerala, you can explore multiple new destinations on your own by walking down the street. Marayoor sandalwood forest - Munnar is such a beautiful location which is only possible to be here in Munnar, Kerala. Marayoor has vast farms of sugarcane and naturally build sandalwood forest. Due to this, Kerala is able to produce a large amount of jaggery (sarkara) every year.

What is so special about the sandalwood forest:

Well, it makes the place heavenly gorgeous and the sightseeing through the aromatic tall and beautiful sandalwood trees which are spread over a vast region is definitely a distinct experience. This dense natural jungle remains at a distance of 40 km from Munnar. It is situated in the east of the Western Ghat hills and has the edges of Tamil Nadu. The forest government of Munnar runs a sandalwood factory here which is also worth a visit.

Highlights of the tour to Marayoor sandalwood forest:

Though Kerala has fewer sandalwood trees than its neighbouring states Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, it holds the best types of trees which naturally grow here abundantly due to the reduced rainfall happens on the lands of Kerala. The virgin sandalwood forest of Marayoor is largely visited by most of the tourists who come to visit Kerala every day. In fact, trekkers and adventure-lovers find this place to be the best in Munnar for its natural sights and large scope for exploring the thrilling jungle. The atmosphere of Marayoor remains refreshing always due to the rain shadow vegetation and green tea estate.

Major Attractions in Marayoor:

• Except for Marayoor sandalwood forest Munnar, Muniyara is another major attraction here which is located inside the forest range. People, who have a deep interest in history, anthropology, and archaeology, find it more interesting and intriguing as this pre-historical place contains approximately 2000 years old megalithic memorial.

• The cave paintings inside Ezhuthupara are another pre-historic site here mostly visited by the tourists. The speciality of these paintings is they are of two kinds  1) drawn with different coloured iron minerals and looks paintings with brown soil, 2) drawn with white-coloured clay soil. All these paintings are about the legendry travelling of Lord Rama and his wife Sita, and again the Pandavas inside these caves.

• The Marayoor forest holds more or less 65000 high-quality sandalwood trees. The department of state forest provides the ‘Sandalwood regeneration experimental plot’ to the tourists who are eager to know more about the trees. You can even see how sandalwood gets formed from the trees inside the jungle factory but you need to get permission for that from the forest department.

• Also, the production of jaggery (sarkara) remains high in the area of Marayoor. So, sugarcane cultivation is another attraction here. It is performed on approximately 1500 acres of land here. It also helps in maintaining the pH value of soil and the temperature around.

• You can enjoy walking along the side of the Pamber River which is originated from Anamudi Hills and flows between Kanthalloor and Marayoor. This river is an added enhancing factor for the Marayoor sandalwood forest Munnar.