An eventful Saturday morning started a bit early than usual, I still sleep like a baby, so ten thirty is kinda early.. We started out to
Gudlur as my friend had to meet a few tribal leaders in
Nadgani and we had pick a friend on the way too.. its quite a journey through the ghats as we hummed slowly on the curves to
Gudlur.. . We met the friend, filled up some fuel and head out to
Devala Hatti which is a
Panniyar tribal hamlet. Driving through a vast expanse of tea estates is really very dreamy.. you will not but think of those yesteryear movies and the actors romancing in tea estates...coming across bridges and little water falls. Tea pickers with their huge baskets of freshly picked tea leaves, the people from the tea factory and guards all make for the human population here with the exception of a few tourists taking pictures that families usually take :-P
The Hamlet is a nice drive towards the interiors from Nadgani town and it is pleasantly warm compared to Kalhatty and Ooty. There are tea plantations but in the plains for a change, I came across betel nut trees too.. quite a contrast I figured. The major difference was the presence of grasslands than the
Sholas ( Evergreen forests). The hills around this area had tall grasslands which is a perfect recluse for Leopards, Cheetah's and Elephants too coz they love this grass I was told by Vasu.
We managed to get to the Tribal leader Kariya's place, I had watched him on TV jus a few days ago talking about road kills in and around
Masinagudi and
Madumalai forest range. The guy who made the documentary was there too.. The hamlet is a handful of houses with a well and a courtyard which is the common meeting place for all the houses. The kids were full of life and very noisy as kids these days are playing around the
hatti while a few volunteers from Europe took pictures of their smiles. I saw the women dressed in their usual tribal attire and were grooming each others hair. As my friend had things to discuss with the leader, me and Pruthvi walked towards the tea estate and lit up and had some Grape fruit we picked up by the road earlier.
We started off from there in jus a bit, and headed back towards the Hunting lodge. We have to pass through the Pykara Lake and Needle Rock which are tourists spots and you can imagine the humdrum it creates in the weekend.. it is quite crazy. We quickly moved away from there and as we were nearing
Naduvattam I sighted a Nilgiri Langoor sitting by the road, this species is a black primate with a golden mane around its neck.. a magnificent specimen who is almost being hunted town to extinction for its flesh and fur. As we continued, we were in for a shock, my friend shrieked, a vehicle had knocked off an adult Nilgiri Langoor :( another road kill.. It was disheartening to see such a beautiful being.. lying dead.. motionless.. there were other Langoor's near by and we had to be vary.. this species and a couple of other species of primates eat their dead.. We had one eye on the tribe as we slowly lifted him off the road and placed him to the side of the road.. there were tears in my friends eyes as she bid a final goodbye to the soul wishing him peace as he rests.
