Wayanad Meppadi & Chooral Mala ｜ Wayanad Tourist Place - Part 3

CHOORALMALA Wayanad Meppadi & Chooral Mala | Wayanad Tourist Place - Part 3 This is the 3rd episode on #Wayanad Tourist Places. This part highlights the beautiful tea plantations around #Meppadi, #Chooralmala, #Puthumala, and Attamala and the life of tea plantation workers. Meppadi is the most scenic village of the Wayanad District. Meppadi has excellent opportunities for hiking and mountaineering. The main attraction of Meppadi is the undulating tea estates. Meppadi is an unspoiled and undiscovered tourist spot in Kerala. Not being a tourist trap, you can walk in the tea estates not being disturbed by touts and other visitors. Meppadi is 12 km from Kalpetta town in the Wayanad District. It is 78 km from Kozhikode (Calicut), 106 km from Ooty, and 281 km from Bangalore. I started the day from Vythiri and explored nearby places. History Tea Plantation in Wayanad. Once upon a time, All these tea plantations were thick forests. The British cleared all these forests and turned Wayanad into plantation land. Instead of starting plantations directly here, the British first introduced the landscape features of Wayanad to other countries and attracted planters from there. Thus, many plantations leased by these lands from the landlords on a 99-year contract. Coffee plantations were first established here, followed by other spicy condiments. Later, tea gardens were found to be suitable for this tropical region, and tea gardens and factories were established here by clearing hills and mountains. The inadequacy of plantation workers was the main challenge here. The forests were cleared and turned into plantation lands with the help of the local tribal peoples, called Adivasi. But they were not suitable for gardening. When it comes to garden work, work should start on time in the morning and stop in the evening. The British wanted disciplined workers who would strictly adhere to these timelines for plantation work. So they brought in laborers from different parts of Mysore and worked here. Most of them were seasonal arrivals. However, the British wanted people to work on the plantations all year round. The British used agents who took the timber from these forests to solve the labor shortage. Many laborers from Malabar were brought here with the promise of commission from the laborers they would bring to the agents and mestry work in these estates. The conditions for the workers were to stay and work in the garden all year round, and to go home for a few days at the end of the year. These mestries, known as the Kangani, also received a commission from the wages of the laborers they brought. Most of the migration of plantation workers to this place took place during the Mappila riots. Many workers from Malabar and various parts of Kerala migrated here due to the insecurity of that time. After independence, after the British left India, these Kangani became plantation owners. The poor plantation workers undertook a great deal of slavery under them. The pain for the workers was inflicted by the Kangani. At the end of the month, when they were in pain, the Kangani bought a large sum of money from these workers as their commission. By 2010, the leases of many of these estates had expired. Some of the plantations were taken over by the government. However, there has been no major improvement in their standard of living. The average wage of these workers, who work in these tea stalls from 8 am to 5 pm, is between 350 and 400 rupees. In some of the rhythms here there are many families who have been working in the same gardens for three generations.