Wayanad

Wayanad district is a hill station and 12th District in the state of Kerala in India.^[1] Mananthavady, Sulthanbathery, and Vythiri Taluks are all in Wayanad.^[1] The name Wayanad comes from Vayal Nadu and it means the land of paddy fields. It is a high, flat land between 700 meters and 2100 meters above sea level. It is in northeaster Kerala, in the Western Ghat mountains. Wayandad is one of the biggest foreign exchange earners in Kerala because it makes money-earning crops like pepper, cardamom, coffee, tea, and other spices.^[1] Wayanad district is bounded by kozhikode district in west, mysuru district in east. kannur district and kodagu district towards north.

Wayanad district വയനാട് ജില്ല
District
Wayanad scenery on NH 212 Kozhikode-Kollegal
Wayanad district
Coordinates: 11.605°N 76.083°E / 11.605; 76.083
Country	India
State	Kerala
Headquarters	Kalpetta
Government
• Member of Parliament	M I Shanavas
• District Collector	Keshavendra Kumar IAS
• District Panchayat President	N.K. Rasheed
Area
• Total	2,131 km2 (823 sq mi)
Population  (2011)
• Total	816,558
• Density	380/km2 (990/sq mi)
Languages
• Official	Malayalam, English
Time zone	UTC+5:30 (IST)
ISO 3166 code	IN-KL-
Vehicle registration	KL-12, KL-72, KL-73
Website	wayanad.com

History

In ancient times the Vedar Rajas ruled Wayanad.^[2] Later the Pazhassi Raja of the Kottayam Royal Dynasty ruled. Then there was a Mysorean invasion. Later, the British took over India, which lasted for 200 years. The British fought the Pazhassi Rajah. When the state of Kerala started in 1956, Wayanad was part of the Cannannore district. In 1957, south Wayanad was added to Kozhikode district and north Wayanad stayed with Cannannore district.^[3] The district was formed on 1 November 1980 as the 12th district in Kerala by carving out areas from Kozhikode and Kannur districts.

People

According to the 2011 census Wayanad district had a population of 816,558.^[4] Many Adivasi people live in Wayanad.^[3] Many settlers also live in Wayanad. People came to Wayanad from almost all the other parts of Kerala because the farmland is good. Wayanad has a small Jain community made of Gowders who came from Karnataka. They built temples all over the district. There are also many different kinds of Christians living in Wayanad. One fourth of the population of Wayanad is Christian. Another fourth of the population is Muslims, and the rest of the people are Hindus. The entire Wayanad region fell under the Kannada speaking area as per the linguistic survey and history of Colonel Wilks.^[5]