Kohima is the capital of Nagaland in the Northeast. Kottayam is in Kerala in the South. To travel between these two points by road, one must traverse a significant portion of the country. A likely route would involve travelling south from Nagaland through states like Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, or bypassing them via Assam, then moving west through West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, and finally reaching Kerala. Considering the most direct or plausible highway routes, the minimum count of states would be around seven, including the starting and ending states.