Teekoy

Teekoy is a southern Indian village in the eastern part of Kottayam district in Kerala state. On 1 January 1962, it was established as a third grade gram panchayat.

Teekoy
Village
Teekoy Location in Kerala, India Teekoy Teekoy (India)
Coordinates: 9°42′0″N 76°47′0″E
Country	India
State	Kerala
District	Kottayam
Founded by	Thomas Kottukapally
Government
• Type	Gram panchayat
• Body	Panchayat samiti
• Panchayat President	K.C James Kavalamakkal
Area
• Total	27.19 km2 (10.50 sq mi)
Population  (2001)
• Total	10,272
• Density	380/km2 (980/sq mi)
Languages
• Official	Malayalam, English
Time zone	UTC+5:30 (IST)
PIN	686580
Telephone code	04822
Vehicle registration	KL-35
Nearest town(s)	Vagamon, Erattupetta, Pala, Kottayam, Kanjirappally, and Thodupuzha
Lok Sabha constituency	Pathanamthitta
Literacy	98.86%
Website	www.teekoynews.com

Teekoy is located 18 km east of the town Pala, and is 44 km north-east of the district capital Kottayam. It is between the towns of Vagamon, Poonjar, Erattupetta, and Thalanadu. The village is situated about 165 km north of the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram.

Geography

Teekoy has features of both midland countryside and the Malanad hill area. Teekoy as a village is medium-sized but as a panchayat is quite long. It covers many areas such as Aniyilappu, Mavadi, Vellikulam, Thalanad and Adukkom, stretching about 20 kilometres and reaching up to Vagamon, at about three thousand feet above sea level, for a total area of 10.5 square miles (27 km²). The place is known for its agriculture and landscape. It is full of hills and valleys in the middle of which flows the Meenachil River.

People

Large-scale settlement in Teekoy began more than 100 years ago. It resembles a tropical rainforest, and trees like teak and jackfruit are found in the Western Ghats region, growing alongside coconut, rubber, arecanut, and other crops. The first large-scale rubber plantation in India was established in Teekoy. Most of the people are farmers and they cultivate rubber, elachi, ginger, cardamom, clove, nutmeg, turmeric, pepper, cashew and other spices. A considerable variety of medicinal plants are also grown in Teekoy which have been used in making traditional home remedies.

There are some third- and fourth-generation Tamil people, descendants of workers who came to work in the rubber plantations in Teekoy many decades ago. Before independence in 1947, Teekoy had some English people who had set up rubber plantations in the area. As a legacy of the colonial era, a cantilever bridge still connects the two banks of the Meenachil River two kilometres above Teekoy.

Culture

Teekoy is a rural but modern village with predominantly hilly topography. It has a dominant village culture, with celebrating the annual festivals, feasts in church etc. Indian National Congress and Kerala Congress (M) are the main parties. Adv. Justine Jacob (Kerala Congress (M)) was the youngest President of Teekoy at his age of twenty-seven.

People at Teekoy are educated and self-employed or employed either in government, private or abroad. Educational institutions include St. Mary's High School, now more than six decades old.

Religion

St Mary's Forane Church in Teekoy, Kerala.

A sizable proportion of the population is Syrian Christian (Syro-Malabar Catholic), but there is also a large minority of Muslims and Hindus. There is a small colony of converted Dalit Christians as well.

The noted Roman Catholic theologian Kurien Kunnumpuram (1931–2018) was born in Teekoy.

Places of worship include:

• St Mary's Forane Church, Teekoy - under the Syro-Malabar Diocese of Pala
• Teekoy Jama Masjid Mosque
• Sree Narayana Guru Mandhiram
• Sree Karuvela Muthu Swami Kovil
• St Thomas Syro-Malabar Church Mangalagiri
• St Joseph Church

Climate

Teekoy's climate has a heavy rain season and mild summer. Summer rains are not infrequent. With hills in the backdrop, it never gets very hot, and the climate tends towards windy and cool.