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ACTIVITIES

At FUNKY BUNKS you are one with nature - partaking of her boundless riches. You can make nature your classroom or your reference library, studiously observing the minutest movements, softest whisperings and subtlest colour variations that unfold before you every moment. You can forget yourself bird-watching, butterfly-watching, filming the amazing fauna and flora or recording their sonorous calls.

BIRD WATCHING

Cottages at the FUNKY BUNKS have balconies that allow the visitors to watch birds at eye-level. The winged surprises appear in all colors and hues. The entire mountainside resounds with their tweets, chirps, shrieks, trills, hoots, whistles and the consistent chorus of cicadas. You will come face to face with birds varying from the whistling school boy, the musical thrush, the mimicking mynah, owls that hoot, several types of parakeets, shrikes, hornbills, racket-tailed drongos, and many more.

BUTTERFLY WATCHING

Watch and record the entire lifecycle of a butterfly from close quarters. The variegated flora at the Tall Trees sustains a great assortment of butterflies. Large swallowtails like the southern bird-wing butterfly - one of India’s largest, and countless moths, including the Atlas moth - the largest in the world, all fly free here.

NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY

Guests at the FUNKY BUNKS enjoy the undisturbed seclusion needed for taking great pictures of birds, butterflies, other creatures and enchanting varieties of native flora. Photos and videos can be taken from the privacy of the balconies from a high angle or from the natural hideouts that the thick undergrowth provides. Human constructions are tucked away into the natural notches in the steep inclines, under the tall trees, to make sure that your frames are clear.

ITS ALL ABOUT NATURE AROUND

Topography

The Western Ghats Mountain range is believed to have been formed some 150 million years ago. The region around Munnar is situated between 1450 meters and 2700 meters above mean sea level. The elevation and the ever- green vegetation around are just right to make the atmosphere cool and salubrious.

The fragile eco-system that has been painfully preserved supports hundreds of endemic wild varieties of plants, small animals, colorful birds, rare amphibians and other smaller life-forms including numerous butterfly and moth species. Natural springs provide clean water that is rich in minerals and has medicinal properties. The air and water are uncontaminated and the plantations inside the property are kept organic to safeguard the eco-system.

Climate

Munnar has a climate that is classified as ‘subtropical highland’ by the Kappen-Geiger climate classification system. The annual rainfall is almost 400 cm. The Shola forests and the hills keep the climate salubrious and comfortably cool throughout the year. The temperature ranges between 5 degrees and 25 degrees centigrade almost the whole year. Only very few days in a year, usually less than two weeks, record temperatures below zero or above 25 degrees centigrade.

Flora & Fauna

Several small and harmless wild animals like the Malabar Giant Squirrel, barking deer, sambar deer, wild rabbits etc., thrive in and around the Tall Trees Resort, and are easily sighted. The streams abound in mountain game fish and rare varieties of small fishes. Numerous butterflies, moths and other colorful insects can be observed at close quarters. There are plenty of birds that sing from the tree tops and bushes all around in the morning and evening. Thrushes, warblers, bulbuls, shrikes, woodpeckers, mynahs, flycatchers, pigeons, parakeets, etc., abound in the green shade. There are also rare frogs, toads and other amphibians in the streams.

Plantations - Within the premises

On the way to and all around Munnar are rolling hills covered with manicured tea gardens, which are a treat to the eye. With footpaths that crisscross, these green carpets formed by decades-old tea plants are smoothed out periodically by manual harvesting of the tender leaves. The elevation of this region, the climate and the soil are ideally suited for tea cultivation. Large areas are also under cardamom and coffee cultivation. The cardamom plants and coffee bushes are grown inside the Funky Bunks Resort plantations.

Cardamom

The dried mature fruit of Cardamom (Elettaria Cardamomum) is the most popular spice in the world. Its oil is used for flavoring foods and beverages, and in perfumes. The warm and slightly pungent aroma of Cardamom is appetizing and pleasing in almost all cuisines and baked items. It is also an expensive spice as the demand for it is ever on the rise, while production is fluctuating and limited to a very small area in India and Guatemala, and few other countries on a still smaller scale. Cardamom is an herbaceous perennial plant having subterranean rhizomatous stem with a tall (around 5ft) pseudo stem formed by leaf sheaths. The plant has the characteristic fibrous root system of monocots and is very shallow in nature. Leaves are petiolate, distichous, linear and lanceolate. Flowers are bisexual, self-fertile, zygomorphic, 4-5 cm long and 2 cm across. Individual flowers are large, attractive and exhibiting all characteristics required for entomophilous pollination consisting of the tabular calyx and three pale green petals. Inflorescence is a long panicle arising directly from the base of the pseudo stem. Each panicle bears lateral racemes on which, flowers bloom sequentially from base to tip. The number of panicles varies from 2-4 per tiller. The androecium consists of a single fertile stamen. Of the five others, one is completely absent, two modified into a labellum and the remaining two form staminodes. The filiform style protrudes through the groove between the anther lobes. Stigma is funnel-shaped, ciliated and the surface is sticky. Fruits are small, trilocular many seeded capsules. The capsules are fusiform to ovoid in shape and pale green to deep green in colour. Mature seeds are hard, brownish black and covered with thin mucilaginous aril inside the fruit wall. The flowers remain open for a period of 13-14 hours and stigma receptivity is high during morning hours. The flowers are often cross- pollinated but self-pollination is not uncommon. Phenological studies indicate that irrespective of cultivars, the tiller produces vegetative buds and panicles on attaining 8- and 10-months growth respectively. Young panicles require 6-9 months to complete the flowering. Flowering-to-harvest stage of the capsule extends to about 120-130 days depending on the climatic conditions. Typical plantations of the most popular variety of the cardamom can be seen in the high ranges. As the harvesting season is spread across the year for the modern varieties, various stages of maturing of the cardamom capsule can be observed and studied.

Location

Funky Bunks
Munnar, Kerala,India.

+91 9072234234

booking@funkybunks.in

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