Grass Hills, Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary
I can't boast of being an avid traveler, there are certian restrains as to where I could go and what I could see. Work took me to some of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen, but one stands out and beckons to me every time I look at my old pictures.
The Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary situated in the Anamalai Hills of Tamil Nadu has some of the most varied terrain in the Western Ghats, including deciduous forest, wet evergreen and high elevation grasslands or "shola" forests. I spent about 4 months in this sanctuary and had an opportunity to visit the one section of the protected area that is now out of bounds for almost everybody.
Every year, the state forest departments organize a large mammal census in the protected areas, giving them some idea as to the health of the wildlife. The day the Nilgiri tahr census was announced in the Anamalais in March 2001, I jumped at it. It was my chance to see the
one place I was itching to get up to and the one place in the area that even researchers needed special permits to go visit. Grass Hills. The most beautiful place that I have ever laid my eyes on, better than a picture postcard!
A 10km walk through rainforest and grassland awaited before we could get to the pitstop. The walk started along an old jeep track, through a tunnel of trees. The walls of soft rock at one side still oozed, long after the rains had stopped, forming trickles of water along the path. The biggest fear....elephants! In those parts, it could be hard to spot a herd in at close range. But for that day there no close encounters of the large, grey kinds. As the rainforest gives way to clearings, the first glimpse of Grass Hills left me in awe.
Before me stretched miles and miles, and hill after rolling hill of grass. All that I could see was grass, brown....being the dry season. The wind howled and whistled in my ear, at an elevation above 2000msl. Picture in your mind the sand dunes of the Thar or the Sahara (or any such place) with tiny patches of green thrown randomly among the dunes. That would be the best way I can describe it. In the horizon I saw some hills that were still covered in a blanket of green, but all around me, the brown grass danced to the music of the whistling wind. The patches of green? Well, montane rainforests. At that elevation, they are stunted and clumped into small fragments called the Shola forests. There was grass everywhere, undulating hills of only swishing grassheads! The wind was loud, almost eerie sometimes. You can actually hear the light whistles bounce of the cliff faces or the smooth hill side.
After a gruelling walk through tough terrain along animal trails (a definite "should not do" for the faint heated or anyone with the fear of heights), the forest closes in again. Another few minutes walk through a pine plantation and the vista opens out again. This time there's a house in the middle of nowhere. A tiny cottage, with a tiny garden! I've imagined myself living out in the countryside in small little cottage, with a brook bubbling nearby, a small garden and birds and flowers.....the romantic that I am. But never in my wildest dream did I think that the picture-perfect scene could ever exist. But it does. An image straight out of a story book.
Konlar Bunglow..."bunglow"? Wrong word, its a three room cottage....but that's what it's called. There flowers in the garden. There was a small brook running nearby, with a small, crudely built bamboo bridge across it. A little house nestled in the lap of the ancient overseers! The perfect, idyllic setting. That night the moon and the stars were the brightest I had ever seen. In the darkness, the hills looked formidable...a sobering experience.
Akkamalai, the highest peak in the Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary. It sticks out like a huge rock among grassy hills. I had wanted to climb to the top of the peak. But as I approached it, I realized what a foolhardy task that would be. Smooth, conical rock, sticking out like a sore thumb among beautifully manicured fingers of grassy hills. I had to satisfy myself with having lunch on the next hill, looking at the peak for about 20 minutes before moving on to "grassier" pastures.
Walking through knee high grass is no joke. But the work makes it worth the while. The objective of the day's outing was to record every single sighting of Nilgiri Tahr as was possible. Locally these animals seem abundant, but through the Ghats, they are an endangered species. The most rewarding sight for a wildlife biologist is to be able to get a close of view of the animal one is pursuing. That day my team sighted about 250 individuals, which included adults of both sexes and the young ones. Other teams in different sections of Grass Hills had better luck, telling us that in that area the population was on an increase and doing well.
Indirect evidence of other animals was also recorded for personal interest. There was evidence of jackals and gaur, and troops of Nilgiri langurs were sighted, one enjoying time in the grass, suggesting that threat from predators is not as high as would be thought.
Once that area boasted of a tiger population, though now lone individuals may pass through. Leopards were the biggest predator that we saw evidence of. But sadly it has become a poacher's domain. The area is too large for the handful of forest guards to patrol and the entire region stretches across state borders. Fires are set sometimes and the forest departments have cleared circles of grass around the forest patches to keep them from burning down.
It would be a shame if unique ecosystems such as Grass Hills were lost. It was rumored that telecom towers were to be established on one of the peaks, though it has not yet become a reality. There are remnants of electric posts near the pine plantations, but none functional.
Technorati tags:
Grass Hills, India, 
Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sancuary, 
unique ecosystem, 
Nilgiri tahr
The Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary situated in the Anamalai Hills of Tamil Nadu has some of the most varied terrain in the Western Ghats, including deciduous forest, wet evergreen and high elevation grasslands or "shola" forests. I spent about 4 months in this sanctuary and had an opportunity to visit the one section of the protected area that is now out of bounds for almost everybody.
Every year, the state forest departments organize a large mammal census in the protected areas, giving them some idea as to the health of the wildlife. The day the Nilgiri tahr census was announced in the Anamalais in March 2001, I jumped at it. It was my chance to see the
one place I was itching to get up to and the one place in the area that even researchers needed special permits to go visit. Grass Hills. The most beautiful place that I have ever laid my eyes on, better than a picture postcard!A 10km walk through rainforest and grassland awaited before we could get to the pitstop. The walk started along an old jeep track, through a tunnel of trees. The walls of soft rock at one side still oozed, long after the rains had stopped, forming trickles of water along the path. The biggest fear....elephants! In those parts, it could be hard to spot a herd in at close range. But for that day there no close encounters of the large, grey kinds. As the rainforest gives way to clearings, the first glimpse of Grass Hills left me in awe.
Before me stretched miles and miles, and hill after rolling hill of grass. All that I could see was grass, brown....being the dry season. The wind howled and whistled in my ear, at an elevation above 2000msl. Picture in your mind the sand dunes of the Thar or the Sahara (or any such place) with tiny patches of green thrown randomly among the dunes. That would be the best way I can describe it. In the horizon I saw some hills that were still covered in a blanket of green, but all around me, the brown grass danced to the music of the whistling wind. The patches of green? Well, montane rainforests. At that elevation, they are stunted and clumped into small fragments called the Shola forests. There was grass everywhere, undulating hills of only swishing grassheads! The wind was loud, almost eerie sometimes. You can actually hear the light whistles bounce of the cliff faces or the smooth hill side.
After a gruelling walk through tough terrain along animal trails (a definite "should not do" for the faint heated or anyone with the fear of heights), the forest closes in again. Another few minutes walk through a pine plantation and the vista opens out again. This time there's a house in the middle of nowhere. A tiny cottage, with a tiny garden! I've imagined myself living out in the countryside in small little cottage, with a brook bubbling nearby, a small garden and birds and flowers.....the romantic that I am. But never in my wildest dream did I think that the picture-perfect scene could ever exist. But it does. An image straight out of a story book.
Konlar Bunglow..."bunglow"? Wrong word, its a three room cottage....but that's what it's called. There flowers in the garden. There was a small brook running nearby, with a small, crudely built bamboo bridge across it. A little house nestled in the lap of the ancient overseers! The perfect, idyllic setting. That night the moon and the stars were the brightest I had ever seen. In the darkness, the hills looked formidable...a sobering experience.
Akkamalai, the highest peak in the Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary. It sticks out like a huge rock among grassy hills. I had wanted to climb to the top of the peak. But as I approached it, I realized what a foolhardy task that would be. Smooth, conical rock, sticking out like a sore thumb among beautifully manicured fingers of grassy hills. I had to satisfy myself with having lunch on the next hill, looking at the peak for about 20 minutes before moving on to "grassier" pastures.
Walking through knee high grass is no joke. But the work makes it worth the while. The objective of the day's outing was to record every single sighting of Nilgiri Tahr as was possible. Locally these animals seem abundant, but through the Ghats, they are an endangered species. The most rewarding sight for a wildlife biologist is to be able to get a close of view of the animal one is pursuing. That day my team sighted about 250 individuals, which included adults of both sexes and the young ones. Other teams in different sections of Grass Hills had better luck, telling us that in that area the population was on an increase and doing well.
Indirect evidence of other animals was also recorded for personal interest. There was evidence of jackals and gaur, and troops of Nilgiri langurs were sighted, one enjoying time in the grass, suggesting that threat from predators is not as high as would be thought.
Once that area boasted of a tiger population, though now lone individuals may pass through. Leopards were the biggest predator that we saw evidence of. But sadly it has become a poacher's domain. The area is too large for the handful of forest guards to patrol and the entire region stretches across state borders. Fires are set sometimes and the forest departments have cleared circles of grass around the forest patches to keep them from burning down.
It would be a shame if unique ecosystems such as Grass Hills were lost. It was rumored that telecom towers were to be established on one of the peaks, though it has not yet become a reality. There are remnants of electric posts near the pine plantations, but none functional.
Technorati tags:
Grass Hills, India, Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sancuary, unique ecosystem, Nilgiri tahr
posted by Sharmishta at 6:53 PM
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