Kodai - Winter 2006 Kodai - Winter 2006

Lankan students made their heroic Southern Sentinel: Anai Mudi & the Palni Hills escape over the pass at Vandaravu to . As students in the 1980s All photographs taken and submitted by Ian Lockwood we were under the erroneous impression that Vandaravu at 2,553 meters was the highest mountain in South . I realized that I had been misinformed when I was poring over Survey of India maps in the gloom of an Ohio winter soon after graduating from Kodai. The maps were antiques, surveyed before the First World War. They had belonged to my grandfather and then been passed on to my father who had attended KIS (1959). Both of them had hiked extensively in the hills prior to the large-scale introduction of tree plantations that dramatically changed the landscape of the Palnis. The maps clearly showed that the peaks around the tea-planting town of Munnar were significantly higher than the Palnis. Little did I realize that visible from Vandaravu is South India’s highest peak, Anai-Mudi.

Anai Mudi, at 2,695 meters, is a peak of significance and rugged, untarnished beauty. Contrary to claims about Dodabetta in the Ian at Inaccessible Valley Nilgiris (2,625 meters), Anai Mudi is India’s highest point south of the When we were students at KIS a Himalaya. Many high peaks in the highlight of the traditional 80-Mile have ended up as Round was having lunch under the base-stations for TV transmitters, gaudy tourist structures and dull summit of Vandaravu. The peak is plantations (think of Vembadi Peak not remarkable as a mountain but it now). Thankfully Anai Mudi was has a superb view into Kerala and is ignored by generations of planters, the highest point in the Palni Hills. developers and others who might On clear days one looks out over the have changed its character and multi-colored canopy of Pampadam appearance. For many years it was Nilgiri Tahr and kid Shola into the eastern valleys of part of a private “game” sanctuary what is known as the High Range. owned by the Finlay Tea Company. tree plantations. Thus by the end pride in their role in protecting Several prominent peaks, glazed in The High Range Club of Munnar of the 20th Century Eravikulam Eravikulam. native grasslands, rise above the bears testimony to these years of retained the largest undisturbed lower valleys of shola forest, tea hunting. Its “gentlemen only” bar shola/grasslands habitat left in the One of the interesting facets of and eucalyptus. Older generations is crammed with skins, trophies Western Ghats! Several decades Anai Mudi is that it hosts the world’s of Kodaiites knew this area as and artifacts of hunting exploits in after India’s independence the most secure populations of Nilgiri Travancore and the now dilapidated the high hills. During these years sanctuary was taken over by the Tahr (Hermitragus hylocrius), the forest bungalow below Vandaravu the other high altitude plateaus Kerala government and established endangered endemic mountain once hosted numerous Kodai class with similar habitats (notably the as in 1978. goat for which KIS’ hiking award camping trips. Frank Jayasinghe, Palni and Nilgiri Hills) were almost The tea planters (now under the (The Tahr Pin) is named. Nilgiri then KIS Principal and the Sri entirely carpeted in non-native auspices of Tata Tea) still take great tahr are connected to a genus of

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Hamilton Plateau mountain goats that once stretched the Palnis where habitat change and For people familiar with the Palni of the undisturbed high altitude the grand and wild features of the Round, near Ibex Peak (the second from the Arabian Peninsula to poaching have almost wiped them Hills, Anai-Mudi and Eravikulam plateau areas of the Western Ghats: country we were passing though.’ highest point in the Palnis). The the Himalaya and south into the out. In fact, I would venture to say holds a special significance. The ridge above Kukaal Shola offers one Western Ghats. Changes in climate that precious few Tahr-Pin winners peak has a similar volcano-shaped “The views from this mountain are Today Eravikulam is significant of the largest undisturbed patches and physical features have left only have ever seen a wild tahr in its profile to Perumal Peak when it is the grandest and most extensive because it retains the vegetation, of grasslands and is actually a part three species in the genus, the natural habitat! viewed from the north. One of the that I have ever beheld; some of wildlife and feel that the Palni of the larger Indira Gandhi Wildlife Arabian (H. jayakari), Himalayan earliest descriptions of the Anai the precipices are of stupendous and Nilgiri Hills once had before Sanctuary (mainly composed of the (H. jemlahicus) and Nilgiri tahr. A Aside from Eravikulam, there are Mudi area comes from Douglas magnitude and the charming variety they were developed into a hill neighboring , an area formidable distance separates Nilgiri small populations of tahr in the Hamilton, the British hunter and of scenery, comprising undulating stations. Of course the conversion contiguous with the High Range). tahr from their nearest neighbors, Nilgiris, Anaimalais and even as far surveyor the Palni and Anaimalai grassy hills, wooded valleys, rocky of the marshy basin into Kodai’s th the Himalayan tahr. Interestingly if south as the Ashumba Hills near Hills in the 19 Century. His lucid crags, overhanging precipices, star-shaped lake and wooded hill- Visiting Eravikulam and Anai Mudi you inspect a the Tahr Pin closely, sketches depict a Kodai without station is beyond our memory. is a tricky business because it is Kanyakumari. Dr. George Schaller, the green fields in the Valley of it resembles the Himalayan rather eucalyptus trees and a lake. Many However, the large scale planting of a National Park under very strict the renowned zoologist, conducted Ungeenad (Mayayur Valley), the than the Nilgiri tahr! The Nilgir of the sketches were printed in the upper Palnis happened between supervision. Its is nearly impossible one of the first studies of Nilgiri grand mass of the Pulnies beyond tahr are agile ungulates that feed the Eucys of the 1970s and they the 1960 and the 1980s, a time still to get permission to visit the Core tahr in Eravikulam and the Nilgiris and the blue ranges (Nilgiris Hills) exclusively on the native high have been used in this magazine familiar with many of us who hiked Zone and my advice is to write (see his book Stones of Silence for in the far distance present a view altitude grasses of the southern (Johnny Riber photographed an these areas during our school years. Kerala’s Chief Wildlife Warden Western Ghats. They use the an excellent write up). Schaller’s original set of 26 drawings from beyond my power to describe and This largely unrecognized tragedy for written consent long before precipitous granite cliffs that are work was followed up by Clifford the Raja of Pudukotai). Hamilton must be seen to be appreciated; happened right under our noses and you visit. The tourist zone gives a feature of the hills as protection Rice who conducted the seminal wrote glowingly of the Palnis and in a word the scenery in the we have been slow to adequately you a hint of the place and is against predation from leopards, study of tahr in Eravikulam in the especially liked the Berijam area, Annumallays is surpassingly grand respond to it. KIS’s hikers of the 21st certainly worth a visit if you are dhole (Indian wild dog) and tigers. early 1980s. Rice has old India links: which he proposed as the main and incomparably beautiful. On Century have to work quite hard in Munnar (now a very popular The entire population of Nilgiri tahr originally from the United States “sanitarium” in the Palnis (look for our way to the Kartu Mullay (the to find undisturbed vegetation in tourist destination). This relatively is thought to be no more than 2500 his father graduated attended “Fort Hamilton” on Survey maps to second highest peak in Eravikulam) the upper Palni Hills. Priest’s Walk small hillside lies on the way to the individuals in the wild. Half of these Kodai and Woodstock Schools. see his preferred spot). His hard- we disturbed several herds of ibex and Perumal have small patches Rajamalai Estate under the southern are in Eravikulam and there are no Cliff was born in Madhya Pradesh, to-find book A Record of Sport in (Nilgiri tahr), which as they bounded of grasslands (soon to bloom with shadow of Anai Mudi’s awesome tahr north of the Nilgiri Hills. Tahr and he graduated from Woodstock Southern India (1892) provides one amongst the crags and precipices, kurinji flowers). There are pockets granite walls. Several generations are exceedingly difficult to see in School in 1968! of the most evocative descriptions added greatly to the effects of along the cliff section of the 80 Mile of tea planters have maintained

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Kattu Malai view of Anai Mudi

salt licks that keep the tahr coming entrance (I’ll save the details for a wild (very skittish and not at all western boundary of the Palnis Related Links & References down from the mountains. Thus you separate article). approachable) and was able to was a deep azure shadow. By then Eravikulam Management. www.Eravikulam.org are guaranteed a tahr sighting and take some interesting pictures of I had learnt that Vandaravu has Hamilton, Douglas. A Record of Sport in Southern India. 1892 there are other highlights if you On my last visit to Eravikulam I the landscapes. I enjoyed long the highest motorable road south can avoid the late morning hordes spent a week participating in the hours on the peak scanning the Nilgiri Tahr Trust www.tahrfoundation.com of tourists. It is not uncommon to 2002 wildlife census. I had the good expansive grasslands and scattered of the Himalaya, a significant, yet Schaller, George B. Stones of Silence. Bantam Books, 1982. see herds of 100 or more tahr in the fortune of being assigned the Anai shola pockets for signs of large easily confusable fact for a Kodai tourist zone! They are abnormally Mudi zone, which meant climbing wildlife. On one clear morning I teenager! IAN LOCKWOOD (Class of 1988) teaches Environmental Science and Geography docile and approachable here. its summit and the neighboring could clearly make out the nearby at the Overseas School of Colombo in Sri Lanka. He previously taught at AIS/ There are other wildlife sightings peaks repeatedly during the seven Palnis Hills as well as the more Ian Lockwood Dhaka and the Mahindra United World College of India (near Pune). He and opportunities in this area. I have days of the census. Accompanying distant Nilgiris across the Palghat The Overseas School of Colombo his family continue to visit Kodai and the Palni Hills on a regular basis. Ian is witnessed herds of elephants in a friendly but quiet Muduvan (the Gap. The microwave dish near the Pelawatte, PO Box 9 working on a long-term project to document the little known landscapes and Observatory, the Berijam fire tower, the tea, observed a super rare indigenous tribal group of the High Battramulla biodiversity of the Western Ghats. His work is regularly published in Indian Nilgiri Marten (Martes gwatkinsi) Range) watcher named Palnisami, Kukaal’s tiny temple and Cloudland’s Sri Lanka magazines such as Frontline and Sanctuary Asia and he hopes to have a book near a shola and spotted most of I got to know the peak well. I had Peak were all recognizable through 94.1.864.920 on the Western Ghats published in the next five years. the endemic shola birds near the fabulous sightings of tahr in the my binoculars. Vandaravu and the [email protected]

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