Madanapalle - Rishi Valley - Horsley Hills

  Madanapalle, Andhra Pradesh, India
Saturday, June 20, 2009

My cousin who has an assignment at the well known Rishi Valley school near Madanapalle [http://www.rishivalley.org/], has been imploring us to visit for some time now, so on a recent trip to Bangalore we decided to do just that.

Bangalore to Madanapalle to Rishi Valley:

Buses ply from the KSRTC bus terminal at Majestic. The buses leave from the Chintamani stand.  While waiting for the 0930 KSTC bus, a luxury APRTC bus headed for Madanapalle pulled in, so we decided to take that instead.  Madanapalle buses are not that frequent so another option would be to take the once in 15min Chintamani bus and a frequent shuttle thereafter.  The bus route from Bangalore is via Hoskote and Chintamani.  Road works upto just beyond Hoskote render the journey tiresome.  From Chintamani onward, the road, and the scenic views, are excellent.  Once the road works are complete, it ought not to take more than 2 hours.  My cousin picked us up from the bustling Madanapalle bus stand.

Scenic road Madanapalle to Rishi Valley

  The 13km journey from Madanapalle to Rishi Valley is through scenic countryside consisting of stark Hampi – esque boulders interspersed with the lush greenery of the vast Rishi Valley campus.  It was warm, but fresh and clean.

Scenic road to Rishi Valley 1

 

Scenic road to Rishi Valley

Rishi Valley

Rishi Valley is an oasis in the midst of arid surroundings.  

Rishi Valley

Tribal huts?

  It is a huge self contained community, more of a commune in a sense, with its own small mountains, fields, orchards, rural health, education and local community centres apart from the mainstream school and Krishnamurthi study facility.

Red Hot Summer - Delonix Regia

 

Summer Colours

After a healthy and sumptuous lunch in the school mess, our cousin took us to the Study Centre guest cottage he had arranged for our stay.  It was surrounded by greenery and much removed from the school buildings.  

Rishi Valley 1

 

Rishi Valley Guest Cottage

   The quaint cottage was furnished in a very comfortable rustic style with mud coloured outer walls.  The bathroom was huge and gave the impression that the toilet and bathing areas were mere ancillaries.   Bird song greeted us, while butterflies flitted here and there.  A bamboo grove and solitary sandalwood tree with mandatory built up tree guard faced our cottage.

Sandalwood Tree - well guarded

 Armed poachers regularly trespass into the premises to steal the precious sandalwood, hence the tree guards.  A boulder strewn hill was to the East.

In the early evening following a brief rest, my cousin and his young daughter who studies here; accompanied us on a short hike up the boulder strewn hillside.

Monkey business

 

Interesting boulders again 2

The boulders and unusual rock formations are starkly beautiful. 

Interesting boulders again 1

 

Interesting boulders yet again

The once barren hillside was lovingly afforested by the Krishnamurthi Foundation many years ago, and now nurtures endemic flora and fauna in abundance.

Catunaregam Spinosa

 

Unknown wild flower 2

Wild Red Sanders tree

The butterflies were a treat, flitting in and out about their business.   A variety of birds could be heard but not seen in the dense foliage. Wild flowers in purple, white, pink and yellow were in abundance.  If this is what it is like now at the fag end of an arid summer, imagine what it must be in spring or post monsoons.   Rishi Valley is now a bird watchers haven, a designated biosphere with its own in house Institute for Bird Studies and Natural History.

A gentle pre monsoon breeze wafted through at the hill top.   A cave could be clearly seen in a distant rock formation.  My niece informed us that it was a bat infested cave which they visited occasionally.  

Later, my cousin pointed out the various school facilities.  One of the hostels is built in an interesting tribal style with conical thatched roofs.  Some of the older buildings exude the charm that comes with traditional architecture.  We chatted for awhile on thoughtfully placed stone benches below a large banyan tree. 

Horsley Hills

Following an early dinner partaken with the junior students, my cousin drove us up to nearby  Horsley Hills.  Several hares scampered across the lightly forested ghat road, stunned by our headlights.  They were very cute.  My cousin said that sambars andjackals are also seen sometimes.

Horsley Hills is a quiet little hill station [1265m AMSL] in the Eastern Ghats developed by who else – Mr WD Horsley, a British former Collector of Cuddapah.   Mr Horsley built himself a bungalow here so as to escape the oppressive heat of the plains.   An Andhra Pradesh tourist hotel complex exists now at the erstwhile Governor's House atop the hill.

There was not much to see at night but we enjoyed the fresh breeze, several degrees cooler than in the valley.   Wild lily like flowers scattered the hillside.  I learnt later that they are zephyranthes lilies.  Now and then the clouds parted to reveal a few dazzlers in the sky.  The diamonds in the plains below were sparkling with more lustre.  Apparently all the surrounding hamlets are flush with electricity, thanks to the recently concluded elections, hence the surfeit of light.  We were lucky to see the hares again on our way down.  We were now knackered and a good nights rest was in order.

Rishi Valley in the morning

The sweet sound of multiple song birds awoke us at dawn – around 0530 in this part of the world.  Babbling Babblers, Sunbirds, Woodpeckers, Tailor birds, Bulbuls, Magpie Robins, Wood Pigeons and many, many more.  A short walk  behind our cottage rewarded us with yet another sighting of a cute, fat hare scampering into the wild growth ahead.  Right in our own backyard!  A column of large black ants was going on their morning walk.  An interesting find close by was of a medium sized ant hill with an oil lamp and flowers in front of it. 

Ant Hill

Ant Hill tribal shrine

The Foundation trains and employs the local tribals wherever possible, providing them with basic accommodation within the campus.  We had obviously come across one of their local shrines. 

Mangoes !

  A huge mango orchard was just behind the guest houses.  The trees were laden with ripening fruit, waiting their turn to be plucked.

My cousin took us past the large dairy to see the fields after breakfast.  The dairy supplies all the schools milk requirements besides producing excellent paneer and occasionally cheese. Vast tracts of 100% organic grain, sugarcane, coconut groves, even more fruit laden mango orchards – some trees had mangoes literally growing at ground level; vegetable patches and extensive tomato fields came into view.   Madanapalle is famous for its juicy cucumbers and luscious tomatoes.

Famous Madanapalle organic tomatoes

  Kissan Tomato Ketchup sources its requirements from this region.  

The old stone step wells came into view.
 

Dry Step Well

Dried out old step well

 
These were shockingly, bone dry.  The cracked earth at the very deep bottom was clearly visible.  A significant reduction in average rainfall over the past ten years has led to a serious water problem in this rain shadow area.  The Foundation is exploring alternate water conservation plans, - and fervently praying for a good monsoon to recharge the multitude of harvesting systems already in place.

We walked along a peaceful wild flower hedged path. 

Catunaregam spinosa

Evolvulus alsinoides - Little Glory

Hundreds of butterflies were flitting in and out of a colourful Duranta Repens bush, mostly blue tigers, striped tigers, catopsillas, small orange tips, common crows, pierrots and junonias.  It was a captivating sight. 

Butterfly - Blue Tiger again

Butterfly - Common crow

Butterfly - Striped Tiger and Blue Tiger

Butterfly - Blue Tigers on Mango

The path led past mango orchards and tomato fields again, with the odd brinjal growing wild amidst the tomatoes!  The temperature was getting uncomfortably warm by now.  Taking a short cut through the fields, we returned to the mess just in time for a sumptuous Sunday lunch.

Fields 1

Madanapalle to Devenahalli airport:

My cousin had arranged for a local Madanapalle taxi to ferry us from the Valley to Devenahalli airport.  The taxi driver, a polite young lad barely out of his teens, turned up at the appointed time mid afternoon, and we set off after saying our goodbyes.  Our flight was at 1805 and we had ample time, or so we thought  - until the road deteriorated drastically shortly after H-Cross almost all the way upto Devenahalli village.  Some anxious moments later, we reached the airport with exactly an hour to spare – just in time for our flight home to Bombay.

Rishi Valley is a tranquil place in sylvan settings, well worth a longer stay.  There is much to explore within the property.  The birds, the butterflies and the unusual rock formations beckon.  If only the roads leading there were not so bad.  Travel time from Bangalore will undoubtedly be reduced once the ongoing infrastructure projects are completed.  All in all, it was a wonderful experience, and great catching up with our dear cousin and his charming little girl – who may not be so little the next time we meet up!