Kannavam forest started to become popular during the reign of Kottayam Veera Pazhassi The glory of the forest was the glory of Kannnavam. Kannavam forest could be seen if you travel on Thalassery - Manthavadi route before 1815. The historical Velumbath Makham is situated in the middle of this forest. This mosque is in the middle of a vast forest and is absolutely amazing. Once, the journey from Thalassery to Mananthavadi was by passing this mosque. Since, there was no mosque in both Cheruvanchery and Kannavam, people used to come to this mosque for performing their daily prayer. Thalassery - Mananthavadi journey became easy after the construction of Kannavam Bridge over the Kannavam river in 1815 by the British. People living in the forest areas started migrating to Kannavam as they got an advantage of transportation and protection from the attack of wild animals. Since, there was no one to look after the mosque, it started decaying. But, in 1962 on the night of 25 July, the world again started to know the glory of Velumbath Makham. Something happened in the mosque that surprised all the people who walked by. Everything near the graveyard was glowing like a bulb. The news spread to everywhere like a forest fire. No one had answer for the reason behind this supernatural happening. The common people went to palathinkara Sheikh, a pious saint and informed about the issue. The Sheikh ordered to fence the area which was glowing. He also ordered that no person should be allowed to enter that area. From that moment the name of the Makham became very famous. Late C.M Muhammad Aboobacker Musliyar Valiyullahi used to come to Velumbath Makham for performing syarat whenever he reaches Kannur. He depicted that Velumbath Makha will become famous like Ajmer. Most of the devotees comes here for praying to have a child. There has been a significant increase in people coming to pray for curing their disease after being diagnosed for years. Devotees says that all your genuine wishes would come true after giving some offerings. Daily hundreds of people comes to visit the mosque. Anyone can reach here by travelling in Thalassery - Kannavam or Kannur - Kannavam route. Every year thousands of people from different parts of Kerala and India comes here to participate in the annual festival Velumbath Makham Sharif Urus. The festival is conducted for 5 days including the day of Rabi' al awwal 26, the day when the supernatural incident of glowing happened.
Demographics
Kannavam is a large village located in Thalassery of Kannur district, Kerala with total 2084 families residing. The Kannavam village has population of 9211 of which 4345 are males while 4866 are females as per Population Census 2011. In Kannavam village population of children with age 0-6 is 943 which makes up 10.24% of total population of village. Average Sex Ratio of Kannavam village is 1120 which is higher than Kerala state average of 1084. Child Sex Ratio for the Kannavam as per census is 1059, higher than Kerala average of 964. Kannavam village has lower literacy rate compared to Kerala. In 2011, literacy rate of Kannavam village was 93.66% compared to 94.00% of Kerala. In Kannavam Male literacy stands at 96.50% while female literacy rate was 91.14%. As per constitution of India and Panchyati Raaj Act, Kannavam village is administrated by Sarpanch who is elected representative of village.
Transportation
The national highway passes through Thalassery town. Mangalore, Goa and Mumbai can be accessed on the northern side and Cochin and Thiruvananthapuram can be accessed on the southern side. The road to the east of Iritty connects to Mysore and Bangalore. The nearest railway station is Thalassery on Mangalore-Palakkad line. Trains are available to almost all parts of India subject to advance booking over the internet. There are airports at Mangalore and Calicut. Both of them are international airports but direct flights are available only to Middle Eastern countries.
In Kannavam village out of total population, 3533 were engaged in work activities. 92.90% of workers describe their work as Main Work while 7.10% were involved in Marginal activity providing livelihood for less than 6 months. Of 3533 workers engaged in Main Work, 180 were cultivators while 496 were Agricultural labourer.
