Kerala General Information

If paradise is green, Kerala is truly Eden. Festooned with placid rivers, limpid lakes and lagoons, lush green forests and warm and shimmering blue sea waters ever tumbling into embrace the vibrant-coloured coast in their crested waves, Kerala is a palm-dotted, enchanting garden. Even the beach sands offer as choice of colours. The corn-coloured northern shores change to a bleached silvery white near Alleppey, ebony-black sands at Quilon turn honey-gold along the shores of Trivandrum and Kovaiam in the south. And a splash of green in the sinuous plams swaying gracefully all along the coast, the coast of Kerala is unrivalled in scenic beauty.

Nature has indeed been more than generous to this narrow strip of country that stretches along the borders of Tamil Nadu in the east and Karna-taka in the north, steeply sloping down from the high mountains of the border country to the lovely beaches of the coast. Sandwiched between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats, Kerala is a beautiful, bountiful region, a tropical paradise famed for spices and ivory for centuries.
Kerala is not only a land of colours but it is also a romance of contrasts, where yesterday, today and tomorrow blend in graceful harmony. Here microwave towers embedded amidst the green finery of paddy fields, shoot up the horizon, and Thumba rocket station streaks into the skies high above the crude fishing crafts riding the waves of the sea along gigantic industrial complexes which coexist with blacksmithies and bullockcarts. The glorious sunshine of summer and the torrential down-pour of the monsoons, both have a charm of their own. A visitor to Kerala is enamoured not only of the limitless scenic charm but also of the vibrant vitality of the Kathakali dance, the lyrical charm of the Mohiniyattom, the frenzied ecstacies of the Theyyam dance and the battle-din of the SKalaripayattu. Though Kerala needs no memento, the green magic of the fertile land and the warmth of spontaneous hospitality of the common people, coupled with their tolerance and cosmopolitan out-look linger long and are never forgotten.

Kerala has been an integral part of the Indian sub-continent. "Its history is part of the general history of India and its culture is one of the major streams that have enriched the composite culture of India." At the same time it had its own geographical and political identity from very early days on account of its unique geographical position and peculiar physical features. Kerala, though enjoyed a large measure of isolation from the rest of the sub-continent, convulsed from time to time by external aggressions contributing to India's kaleidoscopic history, had extensive and vigorous contact with the outside world from time immemorial. It will therefore be only appropriate to go into a detailed study of the topography, climate, mineral resources and flora and fauna of the state.