HISTORY OF KUTTIKKANAM
"A
glimpse of Golden Heritage"
The history of Kuttikkanam dates back to 1750's. In 16th Century
the place was under the rule of Changanacherry Kings. In 1756,
the King of Travancore conquered Changanacherry, and brought the
place under his supremacy. At that time Kuttikkanam and Peermade
outside human haunt. It was a CMS Missionary, named Henry Baker
who first discovered the uniqueness of this place and he started
coffee plantations here. But the plantations were shifted to tea,
during the regency of Srimoolam Thirunal. After that the spread
the fame of this place was just a matter of time . Soon many Europeans
toed the line of Henry Baker.
With their arrival the place began to prosper and soon became
the destination of the glitterati .At that time there were no
good roads connecting Kuttikkanam with any towns . To reach the
place there was only a pathway. The English started Aerial ropeway
LTD; which was incidentally Travancore states' first public LTD
company, however poor economic aspects crippled the company, and
they shifted their focus to road transport The renaming of company
into Road Transport Corporation marked the complete change. Later
in 1960's, owing to political and social reasons the company was
taken over by Mr. Michael Kallivayalil,a brilliant young entrepreneur
from Kerala. By that time, most of the English owned properties
had been handed over to native entrepreneurs.
During
the British reign and after, man power was brought to Kuttikkanam
from various places of Kerala and Tamilnadu .They constitute the
major part of the population of Kuttikkanam.
Kuttikkanam,
which came into the social stream as a plantation town was slowly
transformed into that you could see today,thanks to the vision
and determination of many a sterling soul. Many educational and
other institutions have come up in Kuttikkanam. Now it is no more
the old plantation town, but a place which has all the modern
facilities,yet sustaining the security and tranquility of mother
nature.
