Travel and Deal

Blue-Green Reminders

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“Welcome to plastic free Nilgiris” proclaim painted boards dotting the hillsides around Ooty, Coonoor, Kothagiri. The landscape is striped with tea plantations and multi-coloured wooded sections. All this is punctuated with picturesque villages; also resorts and motels waiting to be occupied by tourists arriving in the overflowing vehicles that wind and honk their way along the ribbon-like roads. The Nilgiris or ‘Blue Mountains’ is a name that does not seem to have any recorded history, though it is conjectured that the blueish haze caused by the altitude (situated at an elevation of 900 to 2636 meters above MSL) gave the area its name, or that the name came from the kurunji flower, known to bloom here every twelve years and cover the hillsides with shades of blue.

The very thought of these verdant spaces being sullied with plastic is depressing; the reality of the plastic-free status of the area is apparent in the strict use of either brown paper, or sturdy newspaper bags by the shops, whether curio shops, stores selling the famous ‘home made chocolate’ and eucalyptus oil, or general stores where plastic, if any, is the packaging of some product like chips or biscuits. A chance sighted plastic cover is most certainly brought by a careless tourist, unwilling to follow the rules. ‘When in Rome, do as Romans’ is the saying – the constant reminder that it is a plastic free zone makes an impression on everyone, regardless of the status of their personal environmental-friendliness. It is hats-off to the Tamil Nadu Government, and the local people, for jointly implementing the system, and taking a positive step towards conserving their green spaces and preventing (further) environmental pollution.

The popularity of Ooty, Coonoor and Kothagiri, once belonging entirely to the Kota, Soligas, Irumba and Badaga indigenous tribes, as a holiday resort began early in the nineteenth century. History records the role of East India Company employee John Sullivan in popularizing the Nilgiris as a summer home for the English working in the heat of the plains. He even introduced a variety of plants and trees to the region, brought from Europe and South Africa, and his house and grave can still be visited in Ooty. The late nineteenth century saw the region well connected by road and rail, and with the ownership of vast tracts of land by British officials came the tea and coffee plantations. Existing forest area and a great deal of grasslands and shrub-lands were cleared to make way for cultivation. However, the area continued to grow as a tourist destination in summer months, the plantations at least preventing large-scale building activity and urbanisation. In a bid to support eco-tourism, the TN government also encourages home-stays; these are available the year round and are a good way to enjoy the landscape, particularly if they are set on their own acreage of land. Residential homes with rooms converted into comfortable accommodation for guests are akin to sustainably run cottage industries as opposed to the high consumption and wastage in mechanized hotels and large resorts.

Many of the home-stays, being part of the original architecture of the area, blend in with the scenery and offer different panoramic views of the landscape, hills flowing into each other surrounded by the blue-green haze, living up to the name ‘Nilgiri’. The area is a bird-watcher’s paradise, as even the uninitiated will observe, and it is possible to see bison in herds, lithe horned deer, and even elephants and tigers (for those who are very lucky). Driving through the estates looking for vantage points to capture the best views can be filled with adventure, the roads sometimes narrowing down to rutted paths with perilous drops down the sides of the hill, and often steep climbs at alarming angles. However, every step of the way and every hairpin bend miraculously produce a new picture, and just when one is convinced it cannot get better, there appears an immense breathtaking view, with spectacular skies and undulating land spreading like a fairy-tale scene until they meet at the horizon. Standing in the resonant quiet of the landscape, small and powerless like anonymous characters in a Japanese wash-painting, one cannot but be thankful for the gift of nature’s resources and our opportunity to still enjoy them.

On an everyday basis, youths and others from the region are leaving to the ironically termed ‘greener pastures’ of cities in search of better lives. But urban spaces of this world cannot survive without the parallel existence of a green environment, to regulate temperatures and suck the air of its poisons, and animals and creatures to maintain the life-cycle. Visits to green spaces (also fast being eaten by encroachment) serve to provoke thought and encourage us to meditate on what we have lost, and pledge to do what we can to conserve every aspect of nature –we are jointly and individually responsible for it.

Making an area plastic-free is perhaps a small move, but will go miles in protecting what we have left of the natural world. I sincerely hope to see the signs “welcome to plastic free Karnataka” in and around the nature conserves in Karnataka too. It is imperative that other governments learn from Tamil Nadu’s success, and take these small steps towards a cleaner and happier earth. And remember, every single individual’s efforts count.

Lina Vincent Sunish