Thoovanam is not a place with a shortage of published information. It is a place where some of the published information disagrees with itself, and in the sharpest case the disagreement is between two pages run by the same department. Roampedia prints both sides of each rather than picking one, because a visitor who is told something different at the counter should know why. Where an official figure does exist and nothing credible contradicts it — the fee, the timings — this page simply gives it.

1. Which river is it?

Kerala Tourism’s destination article on Thoovanam says the falls originate from the Pambar River. Kerala Tourism’s own trek programme page — the page that sells this walk — describes “the Chinnar River which accompanies you on one side, your best comrade”. Both were live on 25 August 2026.

The weight of evidence is heavily on the Pambar. Malayalam Wikipedia says പാമ്പാറിലാണ്. A Commons photograph carries a Malayalam caption reading that the Pambar flows through Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary. Another photographer’s description places the falls “on the Pambar River, on the border between Marayoor and Keezhanthoor”. OpenStreetMap maps the Pambar as the only waterway within five hundred metres of the waterfall, with the Chinnar a separate river joining further north near the check post. Five independent sources against one — but the one is the department’s own trek page, so expect to hear “Chinnar” on the day.

2. What does it cost? (this one is settled)

₹250 for Indians and ₹600 for foreigners, published by Kerala Tourism on its own ecotourism page for this trek, along with the 08.00 to 14.00 window. That is the official figure and this page goes by it. Tickets are bought at the counter on the day and there is no card machine on a forest highway, so carry cash and settle the amount before you set off rather than at the water. The roadside viewpoint 2.0 km up the road is free.

3. How far do you walk?

The department publishes 4 km each way, three hours, graded moderate. The trail as mapped in OpenStreetMap — way 435187940, 93 nodes — measures 3.02 km from the highway, and stops 96 m short of the waterfall node. We re-measured that from the OSM API on 25 August 2026. Both numbers are defensible: a mapped path that ends in a rock scramble nobody surveyed will always come out short, and “4 km” is what the department has always printed. Call it three kilometres of path plus the last bit.

4. How high are the falls?

Malayalam Wikipedia says 84 feet, about 25 m. It is the only source that states a height at all, and nothing contradicts it — but nothing corroborates it either, so it is one source rather than a settled figure.

5. How far from Marayoor?

Malayalam Wikipedia says the falls are eight kilometres from the Marayoor–Udumalpet state highway. Kerala Tourism’s destination article says “around 8 km from Marayoor near Alampetty”. Routed by road on 25 August 2026, the counter is 6.4 km from Marayoor — and the falls are 2.65 km beyond it in a straight line, so the eight-kilometre figure matches counter-plus-walk better than it matches any single road distance. It certainly cannot be eight kilometres from the highway, since you can see the falls from the highway.

6. Which way does it go? Nobody says

No source we found states the direction at all, which is odd, because it is the most useful thing about the shape of this walk: the counter is at roughly 780 m and the falls at roughly 666 m, so you descend about 115 m on the way in and climb it on the way out, in the middle of the day. Two elevation models we checked disagree by twenty to thirty metres on the absolute heights and agree on the drop. It is the one fact on this page that is not contested by anybody, because nobody has published it.

And one thing that is simply wrong

Kerala Tourism still prints chinnar.org as this sanctuary’s website, and an email address at the same domain appears in Wildlife Warden contact blocks on several government-adjacent pages. The domain no longer belongs to the Forest Department and now redirects to an unrelated commercial site. The live official pages are chinnar.in and booking.munnarwildlife.com. The telephone numbers still work and remain the only reliable way to find out whether a walk is running.