In the foothills of the Western Ghats, Munnar lies within one of the eight ‘hottest hotspots’ of biodiversity on the planet. If you’d visited 200 years ago you’d have found nothing but wildflower meadows, myristica swamps, and teak and rosewood forests – the only inhabitants hunter-gatherers, elephants, tigers, bison and leopards. Not today.

Munnar’s beauty might seem natural at first glance, but in fact it’s highly cultivated: nature coaxed into the service of colonialism. During the 19th century, British tea, coffee and cinchona plantations totally reshaped the landscape. Clearing forests, draining marshes, and slicing off wildlife corridors with roads and railways, they created such severe habitat fragmentation that most native flora and fauna retreated or completely vanished.

With its colonial history long behind it, today Munnar operates very differently. Plantations are now managed with a view to conservation, and wildlife is bouncing back – sometimes with a vengeance. Electric fences are no barrier to clever wild elephants, who place logs down to cross them and feast on farmers’ crops. Locals have to guard livestock against leopards, and porcupines can often be seen crossing the road like spiky speedbumps.

Munnar town itself is nothing much, we suggest you get out of it as soon as you arrive. It’s in the surrounding hills that the real experience begins. Of course, given that this is one of the most accessible places in Kerala to visit tea plantations, you certainly won’t be the only tourist. But the upshot of Munnar’s popularity is that the infrastructure is excellent. Enjoy some proper, old-world luxury in a colonial-era hotel, spend your days chatting with farm workers in the tea fields, or hike further out into the wilder parts of the Western Ghats: a landscape older than the Himalayas.

If you’re looking for the quintessential Indian tea experience, Munnar has it all – with an unbeatably beautiful backdrop.