With visitors starting to trickle in, Marayur’s tourism sector is limping back after the setbacks caused by floods and landslips.
Though the Marayur-Munnar road had been remaining closed as the Periyavarai bridge was destroyed in the floods, tourists from Tamil Nadu side had started arriving, said Sivakumar, manager of a hotel at Marayur.
The Anchunadu Valley comprising Marayur and Kanthallur is known for vegetable and fruit cultivation, besides sugarcane farming.
The cold climate and mist-covered mornings attract visitors to this rain-shadow region.
Connectivity issues
Compared to Munnar side, damage was less in Anchunadu in the torrential rain. However, connectivity to Munnar was affected and Marayur remained cut-off from Munnar.
“Visitors started arriving and tourism is slowly picking up,” said an official of the Marayur Forest Division.
The Marayur Sandalwood Division and Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary under the Munnar Forest Division offer tourism packages, including forest trekking.
Meanwhile, the road traffic to Marayur from Munnar was partially restored on Sunday with small vehicles transporting tourists.
Culvert
The PWD built a temporary culvert for the vehicles to pass.
With this, Rajamala will also become accessible to tourists from Monday.
The main waterfalls — Thoovanam, Karimutty and Erachilpara — are live following the rain. Tourists also visit Pius Nagar and Muruganpara known for historically important dolmen.
“Unlike in Munnar, there was no major damage to the road infrastructure in Anchunadu.
Farm tourism is the main attraction at Anchunadu and tourists return to Tamil Nadu from Marayur, said Sivakumar.
Receiving enquiries
“Tourists enquire about the season and climate in addition to road facilities,” said a staff member at a resort in Munnar. He said the enquiries were a positive change as visitors were keen to visit the area during the kurinji season. However, it would take time for the situation to normalise, he said, adding that the cancelled hotel bookings could not be renewed as the foreign visitors might have moved to other places in the wake of the floods.
Marayur and Munnar are anxiously waiting to see how the Neelakurinji season would be welcomed by the visitors.
