WAYANAD DISTRICT

KALPETTA MUNICIPALITY

The administrative head quarter is located within the Kalpetta municipality emphasizing its

importance in terms of administrative town, provision of district level services and so forth. The major findings are as follows.

The Kalpetta is significant in terms of its strategic location, proximity to interstate and intra

state urban centers and tourist places of national importance, unique topography, salubrious

climate, and unique bio diversity. Kalpetta is rich in Bio-diversity and is the only Municipality having

rich forest content. The municipality has 28 wards with an extent of 40.47 sq.km.

The peripheral wards have thick vegetation with low population and the central wards are

built up and more populated. NH 766 acts as the main traffic corridor which connects the town with other districts as well as the states. The presence of Kalpetta – Varambetta – Poozhithode road (the alternate road to Kozhikode without hairpin bend) and that of the Hill highway highlights its regional importance. Almost all the tourist spots within the district are equidistant from the town and the tourism activities are controlled by DTPC from Kalpetta.

The town shows unique topography and environment resources. The town is connected to

the hinter land and the region by single mode of transport network, ie road network. The town is

also blessed with wide range of flora and fauna with presents of vested forest, paddy areas and

rich agriculture land.

As of 2011 India census,[5] Kalpetta had a population of 31,580. Males constitute 49% of the population and females 51%. In Kalpetta, 11% of the population is under the age of 6. The Kalpetta Municipality has population of 31,580 of which 15,401 are males while 16,179 are females as per report released by Census India 2011.

Population of Children with age of 0-6 is 3597 which is 11.39 % of total population of Kalpetta (M). In Kalpetta Municipality, Female Sex Ratio is of 1051 against state average of 1084. Kalpetta block there are 6846 Adivasi families and their total population comes to 29217 in which there are 14458 males and 14759 females. The Paniya community is the largest community in this block with 3951 members, which constitutes 59 percent of the population

Availability of adequate infrastructure is an important index of the quality of life of the tribal population. Here, the position of the Municipal population in terms of the availability of infrastructure like houses, electricity, drinking water, sanitary toilets and availability of public conveniences which get facilitate their entry into civil society are also important as far as quality life is concerned.

2147483647. to the nature of residential accommodation, residence is classified into kutcha (thatched roof and muddy walls), semi pucca (sheeted/tiled roof and brick walls), pucca (concrete roof and brick walls). Source of Drinking Water Wayanad district is one of the districts with highest rainfall. Yet this district has been facing drought in recent times, a phenomenon that is often attributed to the ecological degradation that the district has been going through. In this context, it is worth examining the sources of water for tribal population.