Tourist influx continues as Munnar records -1°C again

Munnar experiences sub-zero temperatures, attracting tourists despite traffic congestion, with frost covering tea plantations.

Munnar’s lowest temperature of the season, -1°C, was reported at Chenduvarai on Thursday morning. The hill station had registered the same temperature last Saturday too. With Munnar experiencing sub-zero temperature even into the second week of February, tourists have been coming in in large numbers. Frost covers the valleys and hills of the tea plantations. “Normally after the first week of January, Munnar witnesses a lull in tourist arrival. But the chilly weather is a huge attraction for the tourists,” said a tourism stakeholder.

As per data from the United Planters Association of South India (Upasi), a tea research foundation at Nallathanni, Devikulam, and Letchmi recorded 1°C, Silent Valley 2°C, Sevenmalai and Upasi Nallathanni 3°C, and R&D Mattupetty 4°C on Thursday.

With the influx of tourists, Munnar is witnessing long queues of vehicles too. “We travelled from Thrissur to visit spots in and around Munnar but were stuck for hours in traffic, mainly near the Mattupetty dam. As we returned from Echo Point after a futile effort to park our vehicle, we were trapped for around an hour near the narrow bridge over the dam. The road was packed with big tourist buses and there was no police personnel to control the traffic. It ruined our day,” says Nayanathara N.G., who reached Munnar last week with her colleagues on a vacation.