The Hindu Business Line : Folding hills, flora, fauna... Nilgiris packs all

Long after visiting the 80-sq. km Mukurthi National Park in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, in the flight to Mumbai, one brooded over the mist, the folding hills and the shola forests. For hours the mist did not part, raindrops like glass shards did not stop coming down driven by a wind, Nature was in the lock-up mode.

One could see the mist taking the hills, gorges, forests and animals. We in our Indica waited as Manikantan, the affable forest official, was certain the mist would give way like sliding doors; sometimes when the sun made a guest appearance, the mist wound down like a driver turning down the shaded glass on car windows. It did happen in the afternoon for about five minutes and one saw the folds in the mountains (Madippu malai in Tamil) and the shola forests in the folds with the rolling grasslands beyond.

Sholas look like cauliflowers or for better resemble a stranded Mumbaikar holding aloft a foldable umbrella in the rains. "The reason for the apparently stunted growth of the sholas could be the strong wind and rains," said our Badga friend, Bojan. He should know as he has trekked the area and Mani agreed.

S.H. Prater writes: "The Nilgiris, an offshoot of the Western Ghats, rise precipitously to form extensive grassy downs and tablelands seamed with densely forested gorges or sholas. They are composed of tall evergreen trees with a dense undergrowth. ... .The most interesting feature of the higher level forests of the Nilgiris is their affinity to the higher forests of the Assam hill ranges. Many of the trees found in these high sholas, and some of the forms of animal life are common to both areas."

"Saar, padikkathavan thaan forest department join pannuvan (Sir, only the illiterate join the forest department)," Mani said in Tamil though he was a B.Sc. in geography. He knows the Latin names of plants and flowers with orchids being a favourite. A few days ago, he had tracked and caught a gang of tiger poachers in the area.

Early morning, we started out on the Indica from Ooty to Avalachi where we spotted the Nilgiri brown mongoose, looking around for some snake (possibly). Onwards we ended at Bangi Tabal point. Before the car came, post from Calicut was assembled at this spot before sorting and distribution (in Tamil it is Pangu). Pangu Tabal became Bangi Tabal. It is a dense, but lonely forest stretch (pickled with waterfalls) up to Mukurthi and after the journey Ananthan thanked the gods as any breakdown would have meant an overnight stay under rains and mist. We were alone.

As Savyasaachi in Between the Earth and the Sky writes: "In the forest, the earth and sky do not meet; there is no horizon. The forest canopy encloses a space where the work of nature, the capacity for self-regeneration, dissolves. There is no sense of time. This space, filled with playing shadows and light, camouflages the presence of living beings. While the forest holds a vision for everlasting life, it also evokes fear."

An endemic orchid in bloom at the park. - K. Ananthan

We were afraid as the mist moved in shutting down Mukurthi. Sometimes Mani halted the car for a glimpse of the rhododendron and the Iodex (Guthariya fergidinicma) plant. He broke the stem of a plant and it smelt of Iodex ointment. "The tribals use it to relieve body pain," Mani said.

Created in 1986, the total area of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (NBR) is put at 5,520 sq. km spread over Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. The annual rainfall ranges between 500 mm and 700 mm with temperatures fluctuating between zero degrees C and 41 degrees C. Falling under the biogeographic region of the Malabar rain forest, the NBR comprises the Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary, Wyanaad Wildlife Sanctuary, Bandipur National Park, Nagarhole National Park, Mukurthi National Park and Silent Valley.

Over time, the sholas have given way to exotics such as wattle, pine and eucalyptus; cattle grazing continues; poaching is fairly routine; the apathy of the tourists stronger than their car emissions.

Building resorts is big business and in places like Sigur, the cost of land has shot up to Rs 7 lakh per acre against about Rs 20,000 per acre some 15 years ago. They violate norms set down by forest acts while forest officials bother about the next financial deal to be struck.

Between 1849 (Ouchterlony's map) and 1992 (current map), the area under sholas has shrunk from 8,600 hectares to 4,225 hectares; that covered by grasslands has dipped from 29,875 hectares to 4,700 hectares; land under cultivation has gone up from 10,875 hectares to 12,400 hectares; tea which occupied zero hectare has shot up to 11,475 hectares, while wattle takes up today 9,775 hectares against zero hectare earlier and eucalyptus cultivation is spread over 5,150 hectares against nil earlier.

The statistics put out by the C.P.R. Environmental Education Centre, the C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation, suggests a steady deterioration in NBR with no serious attempt at correction.

On the way down to Coimbatore, we met up with packs of the Nilgiri langur (Presbytis johni) with their all black body and yellowish-brown heads. Prater admits that their deep call — hoo, hoo, hoo — is less heard as man goes after them. "The beauty of their fur and the supposed medicinal value of their flesh, blood and organs, have caused them to be hunted more than any other species of Indian monkey, and have made them the most wary and unapproachable of all their tribe. Hunted with dogs and cornered they risk, to their own undoing, passage over the open ground from one patch of forest to another," adds Prater.

When they spotted us they slipped down tall wattle trees, on which they feed, to make their escape. With human beings around do they have a chance in the next 20 years?

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