Travel: Nelliyampathy, Kerala
Beyond the cloudy mountains
Where I chance upon Nelliampathy, an idyllic hill station tucked high up in a fold of the Western Ghats above Palakkad.
The whole area is jaw-droppingly beautiful, even for a typical Kerala landscape.
Navy ribbons of road, red-tiled houses, topography in all possible shades of green, the emerald of the trees complementing the parrot-wing hue of the paddy fields.
Skies that seem to have lent some of its smoky blueness to the looming wall of the Western Ghats. Here and there spurt needle-thin waterfalls, the road signs are all clearly marked in English and Malayalam and at some stage, you become convinced the journey is more fun than the destination.
Photo: Vivek Sudhakaran/Palakkad Trails.
Picture postcard beauty
This impression is underlined when you come to the Pothundy Reservoir just outside Nenmara.
There is a landscaped garden which is a riot of colour in season. You climb up two flights of steep concrete steps and once you step on the tarmac up there, it’s like a still water landscape has come alive just for your delectation.
The waters lie still and calm, ringed by blue hills with thin wreaths of mist weaving in and out of them.
The Pothundy Reservoir is fed by the Manchady, Kalchandy and Challa rivers; in turn, the reservoir feeds the Gayathri river at the dam site.
However, Nelliampathy awaits, at 1,400m/3,500 ft above sea level, nice hairpin curves up the Sahya ranges, via the hill that liesto the right of the reservoir.
The forest is dense and verdant and packed with elephant, bison, cats, langur and deer; we surprised a huge sambar deer as we drove up.
The hills up on top range from 467 mts to 1,572 and is packed at ground level with coffee, tea and orange plantations, and yes, many nelli (gooseberry) trees that supposedly gives the place its name.
Photo: Prashant Menon/Palakkad Trails.
Jungle drive
There are two ways to ’do’ Nelliampathy. Once you park yourself in one of the resorts, you can hire a four-wheel drive, experienced driver at the wheel and loquacious guide with you, and hit the road.
Or else, you can pull on your trekking boots, pack your backpack with biscuits, banana chips and water, and hit the road.
Either way, it turns out to be an adventure. The road descends into rutty tracks that put one forcibly in mind of the ’road’ hewn out of the mountains ahead of Srinagar in J&K.
At some stage of the journey, the inclines you will traverse in the jeep are almost vertical and call for extreme pragmatism and a serene frame of mind.
The trekking paths are rough-hewn, too, and for their part, call for dexterity…and of course, you need to look out for all the slithering, whirring and flying denizens of the jungle.
Photo: Vivek Sudhakaran/Palakkad Trails.
Things to do in Nelliyampathy
So what do you do in Nelliampathy? Well, you drive down for a picnic by the Pothundy Reservoir. You indulge in a spot of animal and bird watching; the Nelliampathy hills are known for the Malabar Hornbill as well as the chubby Malabar Squirrel, amongst other wildlife.
You go fishing or take a boat ride on the river. You trek to Seethargundu, Palakapandy, Karapara, even the famous Parambikulam Reserve which is not too far away.
Then again, maybe you just chill. In fact, I suspect the last could well end up as the main attraction of this hill station.
Awesome views atop the hill
While there are a few peaks affording some truly awesome rivers, the Raja’s Cliff at Maampara is not to be missed.
A glassless knoll at almost 1,600 mts above sea level, Maampara is accessed by a jungle path that makes a mockery of more conventional roads, bone-jarringly rocky and very steep.
The view is amazing, though we weren’t able to stick around for long, our guide having caught the scent of a lone (and therefore dangerous) tusker.
Photo: Palakkad Trails.
On a clear day (which is pretty much most of the time, if you wait for the mist that rises up from the valley bottom to disperse) you can see the Chaliyar, Meenkara and Aliyar dams sparkling down below, Pollachi and Coimbatore can be glimpsed to one side, Palakkad to another, and directly below lies the pastoral hamlet of Kollengode.
The summit of the peak lies directly in the Palghat Gap so there is a perpetual gale blowing up there, very exhilarating but with full potential to carry you away, too.
Other attractions are Kesavan Para, the Victoria Church and the Sitargundu viewpoint. The myth goes that Sita came this way, probably on her return from the Lanka sojourn, sat by a deep well that seemed carved out of the side of the Western Ghats, and rested awhile.
There is a small Devi temple atop an adjacent hill, Kollengode down below.
The government, as do one or two of the local plantations, grows oranges, so you can pick up some bottles of the very sweet squash, if you are so inclined, along with the other Nelliampathy attractions like coffee, tea, guava preserve and plant cuttings (the hydrangeas are especially fine specimen).
Getting There: Nelliampathy is about 60 km to the south of Palakkad town and approximately 38 km from Nenmara in the foothills. A very pleasant drive since the roads (NH-7 from Bangalore and then, NH-47) are of international standard most of the way. The nearest airport is Coimbatore, 105 km away.
When to go: Nelliampathy is perfect all the year round, barring the rainy months of June and July.
Photo: Vivek Sudhakaran/Palakkad Trails.
ONCE BUT NOT FUTURE KINGS : A HISTORY
The original settlers of the Nelliyampathy ranges are believed to be the Kadars, a tribal people about whose origins little is known.
In early days, these hunter-gatherers roamed the ranges, literally kings of all they surveyed, learning only to look out for predatory animals. And then came civilisation.
In 1908, the tribal population of Nelliyampathy, as recorded in the Imperial Gazetteer of India, was 3,018 and of them, 310 were Kadars.
They were the only indigenous jungle dwellers found in these hills. Present population figures are pegged at a healthy 8,871 but they include all tribals of the region, and so, there are no credible accounts of how many Kadars exist today.
Ask the tribals themselves and they shake their heads in bemusement; a historical perspective and dignity are clearly not their legacy. Most tribals are labourers employed on the plantations and the government- run Agricultural Research Station.
In fact, there is another tale attached to how the name Nelliyampathy came about. The story goes that the Kadars had a hamlet or `pothy` as they term it, near a place called Nellikolam and in course of time and the bowdlerisation of language, Nelliyampothy may well have become Nelliyampathy.
Modernity has, of course, taken its toll and left its mark. The Kadars dress like the average Malayali now, some of the women even donning the ubiquitous nightie!
Drink has become a bane of all the tribals and ignorance has made them uncaring of the natural beauty and resources, which they plunder with abandon.
Labour problems constantly affect the work at the plantations of this beautiful hill station.
When you look around and see the people who once ruled the land they now work at menial jobs on, it becomes yet another of life’s hard-to-understand ironies.
This appeared in THE HINDU of 7 March 2013.
Links to other Palakkad pieces:
Feature: Palakkad`s Ayurvedic Spas
Feature: The tea times of childhood
Sheila Kumar • March 7, 2013