Best things to do in Munnar
From the Kanan Devan Hills Tea Museum to the Eravikulam National Park, here are the best things to do in Munnar.
#1 Kanan Devan Hills Tea Museum
Although it doesn’t physically demonstrate how tea is made, the Kanan Devan Hills Tea Museum, 2 km northwest of the centre, is worth a visit for its collection of antique machinery and exhibition of photos of the area’s tea industry. The displays range from 1880s pioneers to the modern Tata tea conglomerate.
The highlight of the visit is a short audio-visual presentation outlining how tea was introduced to the region and how it is processed today, rounded off with a tasting session. Its shop sells various KDH products.
#2 Head to Top Station on the bus
Buses wind their way up to the aptly named Top Station, a hamlet famed for its views and meadows of Neelakurunji plants.
They also head to the more distant nature sanctuaries of Eravikulam and Chinnar, where you can spot Nilgiri tahr, elephants and many other wild animals.
To reach the most remote attractions, however, you might want to hire a taxi for the day.
#3 Spot the world’s rarest mountain goats at Eravikulam National Park
Encompassing 100 square kilometres of moist evergreen forest and grassy hilltops in the Western Ghats, Eravikulam National Park is the last stronghold of one of the world’s rarest mountain goats, the Nilgiri tahr.
Its innate friendliness made the tahr pathetically easy prey during the hunting frenzy of the colonial era.
Today, however, numbers are healthy, and the animals have regained their tameness. Largely thanks to the efforts of the American biologist Clifford Rice, who studied them here in the early 1980s.
Unable to get close enough to observe the creatures properly, Rice followed the advice of locals and attracted them using salt. Soon entire herds were congregating around his camp.
The tahrs’ salt addiction also explains why so many hang around the park gates at Vaguvarai, where visitors – despite advice from rangers – slip them salty snacks.
You’re almost guaranteed sightings of tahr from the minute you enter.