The Republic of India (Bhārat in Hindi) is the seventh largest country and second most populous country in the world. It occupies a subcontinent of Asia that projects southward into the North Indian Ocean, separating the Bay of Bengal on the east from the Arabian Sea on the west. Before 1947 it was a patchwork of regions governed as British colonies and semi-independent princely states under British supervision. In 1947 this British Raj was partitioned into the independent states of India and Pakistan. Several French and Portuguese colonies embedded in the territory of India were absorbed in 1950 and 1961, respectively. India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories. Both states and territories are divided into districts. This page lists lighthouses of the southwestern coast of India in the State of Kerala. Kerala occupies the southern half of the coast known historically as the Malabar Coast. For many centuries it was visited by Arab and sometimes Chinese traders, and it was the first Indian coast encountered by European explorers. In general, the coastline is low and sandy, but the land rises quickly behind the beaches to the mountains called the Western Ghats. Kozhikode (Calicut), Kochi (Cochin), and Kannur (Cannanore) are some of the better known of its many ports. This page also includes one lighthouse of the Mahé District, an exclave of the Union Territory of Puducherry. Other lighthouses of Puducherry are described on the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry page. The major lighthouses of India are staffed, and by tradition most of them are open to visitors for a short time during the late afternoon every day; inquire locally concerning the times. Lighthouses and aids to navigation in India are administered by the Directorate General of Lighthouses and Lightships (DGLL), an agency of the Ministry of Shipping. Lighthouses in Kerala are maintained by the Kochi Directorate. Hindi and English are official languages in India, with English serving as a lingua franca for the entire nation. The Indian Constitution recognizes another 21 languages, called scheduled languages, and each of the coastal states has its own scheduled language in official use. In Malayalam, the official language of Kerala, the word for a lighthouse is viḷakkumāṭaṁ (വിളക്കുമാടം). Dvīp is an island, nadi is a river, and tuṟamukhaṁ is a harbor. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Admiralty numbers are from volume F of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 112. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
![]() Kannur Light, Kannur, August 2024 ex-Instagram photo by sayyedcm_ |
|
Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: East: Tamil Nadu and Puducherry | Southwest: Maldives | West: Lakshadweep | North: Karnataka and Goa
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted January 30, 2006. Checked and revised August 14, 2024. Lighthouses: 26. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.