Chavakkad

Chavakkad is a municipality in Thrissur District of Kerala state in India. Chavakkad is noted for its beach and fishing. It lies on National Highway 17 is about 75 km (47 mi) north of the city of Kochi, the commercial capital of Kerala and 25 km (16 mi) west of Thrissur, the cultural capital of Kerala.

Understand
In spite of being a small fishing village, Chavakkad is an extremely rich place. You will be surprised by the sheer number of luxury villas in this village. The people make their money by working in the gulf countries and as per the local grape wine, from smuggling and such illegal business activities. The locals will introduce themselves as smugglers because it is a respectable profession in two cities of Kerala: Chavakkad and Kasaragod.

History
The Chavakkad Province, which was under the control of the Punnathur Swarupam, was captured by the Dutch in 1717 and the Mysore force in 1776. In 1789, on the 26th of September, Chavakkad came to be under the British Malabar used to be a district in the Madras Province. It had then for its Province self rule certain Unions The history of the local self-government of chavakkad commences with the formation of the chavakkad union in 1918 under the Malabar District Board. In 1927, a new administrative machinery formed the Panchayat Board was introduced. In those day only the big landlords, who paid regular taxes had the right to candidature in the elections and the right to vote as well. The elections were not conducted on the basis of secret ballots then. Such a system was started only in 1953, six years after the attainment of independence, during the Panchayat elections. Prior to the Panchayat elections of 1963, the first ever such election after formation of the Kerala State in 1956, the Chavakkad Panchayat had to be re-partitioned in the course of which the Guruvayoor Province was separated from the Chavakkad Panchayat and certain other provinces like the southern Palayoor, Punna, Thiruvathra, Blangad and Manathala included. On October 1st 1978, Chavakkad Panchayat was upgraded to the status of a Municipality.

Stay safe
Smuggling and other illegal activities are quite rife in Chavakkad and there is a big and established underworld. Take care of speeding vehicles and suspicious looking persons coming near your luggage. You need not carry this fear complex with you everywhere in Kerala, as there is only one more place in Kerala where smuggling is widespread, that is Kasaragod in the north.