Badiadka
Grama Panchayat

Located at the northernmost tip of Kerala on India's west coast, Kasaragod is an ancient and historically renowned region that became part of Kerala during the state's reorganization and was officially established as the state's 14th district in 1984, following the bifurcation of the old Kannur district's Kasaragod and Hosdurg taluks. The district features a 77 km coastline, 5,625 hectares of forest land, and is drained by major rivers like the Chandragiri, Shiriya, and Nileshwaram-Karyangod. It boasts prominent tourist destinations such as the majestic 18th-century Bekal Fort, which was captured by Hyder Ali in 1763 and later seized by the British East India Company from Tipu Sultan in 1789, along with Valiyaparamba island, Kappil Beach, and the 9th-century Ananthapura Lake Temple, which is considered the original seat (Moola Sthanam) of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram. Agriculturally, Kasaragod is home to the Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPCRI)—originally established under the Madras Government in 1914 where the first TxD coconut hybrid was developed—and leads the state in the production of cashew nuts, areca nuts, dried red chilies, and tobacco, which is extensively cultivated in coastal and inland pockets like Pallikkara, Ajanur, and Pullur-Periya. While three-fourths of its population are Malayalis, the district is a linguistic melting pot home to Kannada, Tulu, Marathi, and Hindustani speakers, and possesses a rich heritage that includes the historic, matrilineal kingdom of Kumbla, which fell under the Vijayanagara Empire, as well as a proud legacy of Indian freedom fighters who endured imprisonment, including Shankar Tailor, Kamalaksha Pai, C. Beeru Shetty, Dr. P. S. Shasthri Khandige, Krishna Bhat, Sarpangala Rama Bhat, and Pande Vaidya Shankaranarayana Bhat.