You’d think a travel agent dreamed up Coorg.

Picture this: 2,564 sq km of undulating topography carpeted in every shade of green, wreathed over by a gauzy stole of thin white mist. Bamboo, sandalwood and rosewood forests.

Murmuring streams and rivulets, children of the mighty Cauvery, herself born within this realm, wending her way languorously through her land. Waterfalls, deep ravines, paddy fields, sloping glades, grassy downs. Coffee bushes studded with red berries. Pepper, cardamom, oranges, nutmeg, turmeric, lemon grass… a land fecund beyond belief.

Flowers like the Coorg rose and the Coorg lilac in a riot of colours. Denizens including elephants, the Malabar squirrel and tigers. The highlanders, a martial race of men and women who compel a second glance with their chiselled profiles, stately bearing and striking dress. And, oh yes, crisp air-conditioned weather.