Kuttanad, the rice bowl whose fields lie below sea level, sits in the one Kerala district with no high land

Background

The new Makkekadavu–Nerekadavu bridge across the Vembanad Lake has just removed the long detour via the Thanneermukkom Bund for traffic between the two shores, which makes the land it crosses worth knowing.
Kuttanad is the rice bowl of Kerala, with an unending stretch of paddy fields, small streams and canals, and it was well known even from the early periods of the Sangam age.
The Kuttanad area lies below sea level.
Alappuzha, the district it lies in, is the smallest district of Kerala, and it is the only district in Kerala where there is no high land and forest area.
There are neither mountains nor hills in the district except some scattered hillocks between Bharanikkavu and Chengannur blocks in the east; Cherthala, Ambalappuzha, Kuttanad and Karthikappally taluks lie fully in the low land region.
80% of the district lies in the coastal region and the rest in the midland, water bodies constitute 13% of the district, and it has a contiguous coastline of 82 Km.
The alluvial soil of Kuttanad, the north eastern portions of Karthikappally, the western portions of Chengannur, the north western sector of Mavelikkara and the delta formed by the Pamba, Manimala and Achenkovil rivers near their confluence with the Vembanad lake carry paddy and sugar cane; the peaty and kari soils of eastern Cherthala and Ambalapuzha and western Kuttanad are of poor fertility and low yields.
The average rainfall in the district is 2763 mm, delivered by the south-west monsoon or Edavappathi from June to September and the north-east monsoon or Thulavarsham from October to November, and Lord Curzon's visit gave Alleppey the name Venice of the East.