Attappadi (HQ:Agali) is a tribal taluk in Kerala state covering an area of 735 km2 (284 sq mi).

[5] Mannarkkad and Attappadi were parts of Valluvanad Swaroopam dynasty in the medieval period with their headquarters at Angadipuram near Perinthalmanna in the present-day Malappuram district.

According to local legends, the last Cheraman Perumal ruler gave a vast extension of land in South Malabar during his journey to Mecca to one of their governors, Valluvakonathiri, and left for pilgrimage.

[8] Walluvanad Taluk was divided into six Revenue blocks: Mankada, Perinthalmanna, Mannarkkad, Ottapalam, Sreekrishnapuram, and Pattambi.

Attappadi is an extensive mountain valley at the headwaters of the Bhavani River nestled below the Nilgiri Hills of the Western Ghats.

The 249 km2 Attappadi Reserve Forest is an informal buffer zone bordering the Silent Valley National Park to the West.

The Bhavani River flows from the Northwest around the mountain in a tight bend past Attappadi village and continues to the Southeast.

The monumental palace-like "Bharat Yatra Centre" at Agali was established in 1984 by a former Prime Minister, Chandra Shekhar, to provide employment training in weaving, pottery, embroidery, and food processing to the women of this rural area.

The bands and layers of ultramafics and mafic rocks (Ultramafic and mafic rocks represented by meta pyroxenite, talc-tremolite-actinolite schist, and amphibolites) of varying dimensions, banded iron formation(BIF), sillimanite/kyanite bearing quartzite and fuchsite quartzite occurring within the Peninsular Gneissic Complex of Attappadi area designated as Attappadi Supracrustals.

This folding has given rise to an axial planar penetrative foliation and is defined mainly by hornblende and to a lesser extent by chlorite and is co-parallel to the lithoboundaries identified as S0.

S1 schistosity is defined by hornblende and chlorite, and this mineralogical association suggests that the deformation occurred under upper greenschist to lower amphibolite facies conditions.

The most prominent planar structures are the discrete mylonitic foliation S2 attributed to the regional NE-SW trending Bhavani shear.

Detailed studies to assess the economic potential of the Attappadi area were carried out subsequently by the Geological Survey of India.

Nair 1993 carried out the geomorphologic mapping combined with panning of Siruvani River which led to the discovery of primary gold mineralization in epigenetic quartz vein in Puttumala.

While tracing the NE extension of the Kottathara prospect, stringers of quartz analyzing 9 g/t 35 g/t and 49g/t gold have been picked up in stream beds.

Visible specks of gold were noticed in the samples collected from veins, particularly where the associated sulfides have been subjected to weathering and leaching resulting in the formation of limonite.

[15] Attappadi RF in the southwest portion of Mannarghat Forest Division receives a high rainfall of 4700 mm (185 in).

Attappady taluk comprises 6 revenue villages like Agali, Kallamala, Kottathara, Padavayal, Pudur and Sholayur.