Located about 72kms from Thiruvananthapuram, the State Capital of Kerala, the southern most State of India. Thenmala is a small village at the foothills of Western Ghats and predominantly a forest area. The famous Shenduruney Wildlife Sanctuary is the most important ecotourism resource of Thenmala Ecotourism. This Wildlife Sanctuary is of about 100 sq. km. and harbors large varieties of flora and fauna.
Thenmala ecotourism project is the first planned ecotourism project/destination in the country. In many other cases it was just renaming of an already existing "nature tourism". Here from the very beginning efforts have been taken to imbibe the internationally accepted principles of ecotourism in the planning process as well as in implementation. A conscious management strategy has been evolved to create a familiarization zone to limit the impacts in sensitive ecosystems to the minimum. Another important feature is the institutionalizing of co-ordination mechanism among Forests, Irrigation and Tourism Departments, Local Community, Local Self Government and other stake holders.
