BharatSangraha

Malabar · Western Coastal Strip

Terrain and eco-zones

Tropical monsoon with two wet seasons, the southwest from June and a shorter northeast in October and November. The coast takes roughly 3,000 mm; Lakkidi, at the head of the Thamarassery pass where the air is forced up the ghat face, is among the wettest inhabited places in India. The Theyyam calendar sits in the dry months for a practical reason: the costumes, the fire and the all-night crowd do not survive rain.

Landforms

Coastal sandbars with long shore-parallel kayals behind them, at Kavvayi, Valapattanam and KadalundiLaterite midland, quarried in blocks and cut into terraced garden landThe Wayanad plateau, an inland shelf at 700–2,100 m behind the ghat crest, with Chembra at about 2,100 mTwo breaks in the ghat wall — the Thamarassery pass and the Chaliyar valley at NilamburKaipad and pokkali-type saline fields, flooded by tidal brackish water and farmed with prawn in rotation

Rivers and waters

Chaliyar — the teak river; Nilambur logs were floated down it to the Kallai timber yards at KozhikodeValapattanam — the north Malabar river, deep and tidal, with the plywood and timber works along its bankKorapuzha — small, and the most consequential line in the region's cultural geographyKadalundi — reaching the sea at an estuary that is a wader site of international importanceBharathapuzha — the southern limit, meeting the sea at PonnaniKabani (Kabini) — the Wayanad river, which flows east into the Cauvery and reaches the Bay of Bengal

Through the year

SeasonMonthsTypicalWhat it is like
SummerFebruary–May24–36 °CHot and humid on the coast, mild on the plateau. Pooram and the Poorakkali season fall in Meenam, and the last Theyyams of the year are performed at the end of it.
Southwest monsoonJune–September23–30 °CContinuous heavy rain; the fishing ban is in force and the ghat road slips. Wayanad's landslide risk is concentrated here.
Northeast monsoonOctober–November23–32 °CThundery evening rain. The Theyyam calendar opens on the tenth of Thulam, in the last days of October.
WinterDecember–February20–33 °CDry and clear, and the season the whole region works to — kaliyattams almost every night somewhere in the north, and the coffee harvest on the plateau.

Best time to visitNovember to March. The Theyyam calendar runs from the tenth of Thulam (late October) to Edavam (May), with the great majority of kaliyattams between December and April, but each kavu keeps its own dates and none of them is published centrally — ask locally rather than planning around a season. Wayanad is best from September to March; the Bandipur road through it is closed to traffic at night year-round.

The climate, landforms, rivers and seasons of Malabar, and the best time of year to visit. (4)