Kannur

During this time, numerous temples and family estates, especially in northern Kerala districts like Kannur and Kasaragod, host performances.

Some 75% of the remaining mangroves across Kerala are in the hands of private individuals and could be cleared for more lucrative intensive shrimp farming, said M. Ramit, a program officer for the Wildlife Trust of India, who is working on a project to restore mangroves in Kannur, a coastal district in northern Kerala.

Before that, her father says, Afra didn't step out much from her house in Kerala's Kannur district.

Shyja, who uses only one name, lives in Kannur district in the southern state of Kerala.

Fed up with the direction of the party, she left politics eight years ago and settled into a position teaching law at Kannur University in Kerala.