Wayanad, where Pazhassi Rajah raised a Kurichiya militia against the British, is Kerala's 12th district

Background

Wayanad, whose name comes from Vayal Nadu, the land of paddy fields, covers 2,132 sq. km on a plateau of the Western Ghats.
The two Ampukuthimala caves between Sulthan Bathery and Ambalavayal, with wall pictures and pictorial writings, point to a New Stone Age civilisation.
When Kerala Varma Pazhassi Rajah of Kottayam was driven into the Wayanad forests, he organised the Kurichiya tribals into a people's militia and fought the British in guerrilla encounters.
The British then opened the plateau for tea and other cash crops and laid roads from Kozhikode and Thalassery.
Wayanad was carved out of the Kozhikode and Kannur districts and came into being on 1 November 1980 as the 12th district of Kerala.