Sulthan Bathery

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Sultan Bathery - is a mid-sized town in Wayanad district of Kerala, India. It derives its present name from Tipu Sultan of Mysore who used the abandoned Jain temple here and used it as his battery here in the 18th century, hence the name Sultan's Battery.Old name of this town was Kidanganadu,because the presence of the Kidangans the tribes. Later, it came to be known as Sultan Bathery, the Malayalam version of its name. It is also known as Sultan's Battery of Wayanad district. Though the fort does not remain any more, the place is worth the visit for the famous Jain Temple. The place was previously known by the name of Sulthan's Battery.[1] The town is the largest town in Wayanad District.The largest being the Taluk headquarters of Sultan Bathery .It lies on the Kozhikode - Kollegal National Highway (NH 212) 98 km from Kozhikode town. It is 115 kilometers from Mysore and about 100 kilometers from Ooty (Udagamandalam). It is also connected with Nilambur. The people primarily depend on agriculture for a living.

Sulthan Battery is situated at about 930 metres above mean sea level. One can find beautiful folded hills across the horizon. The climate is pleasant throughout the year. The town has the National Highway 212 passing through it. The town is the centre of tourism in Wayanad District. It has become a very popular destination among tourists from India's software valley.

People
one important characteristic feature of the Sulthan Bathery is the large adivasi population, consisting mainly of Paniyas, Kurumas, Ooralis, Kadans,Kattunaikkans are the different aboriginal tribes . The Kurmas is the most developed among them. They are small land owners, whereas the members of other tribes are mostly labourers. Wayanad district stands first in the case of adivasi population (about 36%) among other districts in the state. Sulthan Bathery has a large settler population. There are people from almost all parts of Kerala who migrated to this fertile land for building up their lives.One Third population of Sulthan bathery is constituted by Muslims. Christians constitute One fifth population. and rest of the population belongs to Hindus. Their hard work and sacrifice helped them to prosper. On the other hand, the last few decades have seen the complete marginalisation of the indigenous people.

Climate
Sulthan bathery has a salubrious climate. The mean average rainfall in this area is 2322. mm Lakkidi, Vythiri and Meppadi are the high rainfall areas in Wayanad. Annual rain falls in these high rainfall areas ranges from 3000 to 4000 m.m. High velocity winds are common during the southwest monsoon and dry winds blow in March-April. High altitude regions experience severe cold. In Wayanad (Ambalavayal) the mean maximum and minimum temperature for the last five years were 290C 180C respectively. This place experiences a high relative humidity, which goes even up to 95 per cent during the Southwest monsoon period. Generally the year is classified in four seasons, namely, cold weather (December-February), hot weather (March-May), Southwest monsoon (June-September)and Northeast monsoon (October-November).

How To reach
Sultan Battery has a very good road connectivity with south Indian states .The major Road is NH 212 connected to Mysore, Bangalore and Calicut, two State highways connected to Ooty and Coimbatore and a state highway connected to Mangalore, kannur And Kasargodu.

There are no railway line through the sultan Bathery. But the Planning Commission of India approved the below mentioned railway project.

The needed development is Calicut - Feroke - Kondotty - Edavanna - Nilambur - Sulthan Bathery- Nanjangud - Mysore Rail Line. It will be the shortest route from Kerala to Bangalore,Mysore,Hyderabad,and North Indian cities.This line proposed during the colonial period had been on the cards since then.However, railways only initiated a priliminary enquiry to study the viability but nothing further was done. Being a hub of tourism attracting people from many parts of the country especially from the bordering states - Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Sulthan Bathery offers an abundant and greenish landscape with wide mountain ranges that extent upto Nilgiris for the tourists