Two gates, ten kilometres apart: why reporting at the wrong one costs you the day at Chinnar

State Highway 17 runs from Munnar through Marayoor and on through Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary to Udumalpet in Tamil Nadu. Two places on it matter if you have booked anything with the Forest Department here, and they are 10.2 km apart. Turning up at the wrong one is the most common way to lose a day at Chinnar, and it is entirely avoidable.

Alampetty

Alampetty is 6.4 km beyond Marayoor: a counter at the edge of the road beside a stream culvert, with a guide stand and a register and no building. It measures about 752 m on the SRTM elevation model. This is where the Chinnar dolmen culture trek starts and where the Thoovanam falls trek starts — two half-day walks that leave in opposite directions from the same stand. The department also sends the Thoovanam log house and the Jellimala log house here, at 3 pm.

The Chinnar check post

A further 10.2 km up the same road, 202 m short of the Tamil Nadu border, is the sanctuary’s main gate, and it is a different order of thing altogether. There is a lift gate across the highway with a police checkpoint tag on it. OpenStreetMap maps three Forest Department buildings within 32 m of the gate, the sanctuary’s information office at 44 m, a map board at 43 m, a hamlet called Chinnar at 49 m and a roadside restaurant called Vanajyothsna at 38 m. The department’s own literature adds an eco shop, an amenity centre, an inspection bungalow, a dormitory and a cafeteria. The Eco-Development Committee’s postal address in the Forest Department brochure is exactly this: Chinnar Check post, Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, Marayur P.O. 685 620.

It is also the lowest ground in the reserve. We measured it at about 456 m against SRTM — roughly three hundred metres below Alampetty. The department’s brochure puts the sanctuary’s range at 500 m at Chinnar to over 2,300 m at Nandala malai, which makes the check post effectively the valley floor.

Which programme reports where

The department’s own programme text is consistent about this even where its spelling is not. Vasyappara: report 3 pm at the Chinnar check post. The Karakkad tree-top machan: before 3 pm at the Chinnar check post. The Churulipetty, Pambar and Koottar log houses: 3 pm at the Chinnar check post. The Thoovanam and Jellimala log houses: 3 pm at the Alampetty eco-shop. And a separate travel listing puts it the blunt way round: except for the Thoovanam falls trek, the treks start from the Kerala–Tamil Nadu border check post.

What to do with the hour before three

If you have reported early — and you should, because the climb to Vasyappara is published as ninety minutes and was recorded at three and a half hours by the only party who wrote the day up — the check post is a decent place to wait. The sanctuary’s observation tower is 414 m away: a metal lattice structure with open stairs, tagged in OpenStreetMap as a viewpoint with a 360-degree outlook, and one of the eight ecotourism facilities the department lists. The Chinnar river is 155 m off, running over pink granite under big trees. The map board at the gate will show you where you are going, which no website will. And there is a restaurant, which is the last cooked food you will get that is not cooked by your guides on a ridge.

⚠ Get off the carriageway to do any of it. This is an inter-state lorry route with no footway on either side and the border gate 202 m north.