India Nature: The Highlands of the Western Ghats

  Kumily and Munnar, India
Tuesday, May 8, 2007

From the coastal backwaters by S.T. bus to the highlands of the Western Ghats, I watched as the scenery unfurled along switchbacked and potholed yet paved roads. For hundreds of kilometers, the bus snaked through villages, stopping often as passengers came and went. Some passengers threw coins at the churches and Hindu shrines as the bus drove by. The trip visit into this part of the Western Ghats lasted one week and went through Munnar, Eravikulum National Park, Kumily, and Periyar National Park.

The road passed forests, small homes in the woods, tea and coffee crops, cardamom under canopy, and waterfalls, with views of distant mountains sometimes enshrouded in mist, other times in a blue haze, sometimes in a rainy fog. At one bus station, I saw a blind man begging in an empty bus. Painted signs called attention to the Popular Front, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Jewelry Stores, and Hotels (which means restaurant in Kerala). Other signs warned drivers:

IMPATIENT ON ROAD
PATIENT IN HOSPITAL

Eravikulum Peaks

Munnar, my base station for visiting Eravikulum, was perched one mile up in the mountains, surrounded by tea plantations and the tallest peaks of the Ghats, at over 7,000 feet. At this elevation, you are literally in the clouds when they pass by, breathing the mist or walking in their rain. The rain, mist, and damp climate, when combined with the rocky high elevation terrain, creates broad alpine grasslands above the forests, the best example of which lies at Eravikulum.

Being school holiday and a weekend in India, the park was crowded, with a long line waiting for the park buses. Four kilometers later, the bus stops on a steep hillside. In the rain, I exited with thirty Indians. From here the trail wound up a mountainside. The trail was actually a road, with cars passing by to private inholdings. A kilometer later, the trail ended...that was it! Not much opportunity to visit the park, for sure.

The Nilgiri Tahr, part II

Nevertheless, I was able to see one of the rarest mountain goats in the world, the Nilgiri Tahr, as well as two rare birds, the Nilgiri Pipit, and the Grey-breasted Laughingthrush. The Tahr ate grass next to the road, a few feet from us--the kids, the parents, and the whole world. They were amazingly accepting and acclimatized to humans, despite the yelling and cell phones. It was almost as though they were domesticated. Perhaps this started a few years back when a foreign researcher fed the tahr needed salts to lure them closer for his studies (elsewhere they are extremely elusive).

Periyar National Park

Further south down the ghats, I visited Periyar National Park, staying at Forest View Homestay, run by a local family and set right next to the Tamil Nadu Forest. Tamil Nadu ran the forest even though the land was in Kerala because Tamil Nadu, on the rainshadow side of the ghats is short on water, a common theme throughout India. Thus, TN needs to get water from Kerala.

The forests form a sponge and filter for the water that falls to earth, trickles through the leaves, and enters into the groundwater. Eventually, it reaches a stream, which leads to a reservoir. Reservoirs cover large parts of the Western Ghats, providing water for millions and for farms.

In the heart of Periyar lies Periyar Lake, a dammed reservoir created over 100 years ago. The lake destroyed core stream and evergreen tropical forest, but at the same time created the perfect opportunity for the masses to visit remote areas safely--for both the wildlife and people.

Tour Boat and Elephants

The boat tours on Periyar Lake packed dozens of people every day. I took two boat tours and on each tour, saw dozens of bison, deer, birds, and elephants. The kids loved it and no one had to worry about getting eaten or scaring the animals. Some people couldn't contain their excitement though and the park staff had to shut them up time after time. I shared my binoculars with the boy next to me as we looked at the various animals.

Broadleaf Tropical Forest

Other times, I walked in and around the park, binoculars in hand. Once a wild boar passed within twenty feet of me. Another time, a Malabar Hornbill flew into a sapling a few feet from me. This was what I wanted to do--just walk in the forest with nature: very simple. It sure beat the hassles, misinformation, and poor communication I've found in so many other parks (I won't bore you any more with these, but there are dozens of examples. All in all, however, I have to say that the park staff have been extremely friendly, though plagued with poor bureaucracy, rules, and perhaps ignorance.).

Sri Lanka Frogmouth

Twice, I went with a Tribal Guide into the depths of Periyar's dense forests. The national park publicizes these people as local tribesmen who would normally be poaching tigers, if they weren't guides. The first guide, Arubi, and I saw Wynaad Laughingthrush and Malabar Trogon as highlights. Before being a guide, Arubi was a rickshaw driver in town, not a tribal poacher, but that didn't matter. With Monah, I saw a pair of Sri Lanka Frogmouth, filter feeders of the skies, resting after their night of hunting flying insects.

We passed through rocky hillside habitats where the park staff used prescribed burning to maintain open Elephant Grass savannas. This reminded me of eight years of prescribed burn season on Martha's Vineyard, which usually was going strong about mid-May.

After so much hiking in the woods, my sould felt rejuvinated, recovered from the low I hit a week before. This is one of the miracles of nature--it's healing powers, it's ability to soothe the soul and make you feel alive!