The Towering Ranga

RANGASWAMY PILLAR

A HALLIMAYOR PRESPECTIVE

Just by the look of it one is griped by the unusual rock
formation reaching out for the sky. An audacious free
hand chiseling dealt exuberantly by the vivid sculptor
called nature,a testimony of all its grandeurs.
This image is far from describing
what I really feel of these gregarious mountains
bestowed not only with visual appeals but the real
meta purpose of nature
in work to erode the highlands and fill up
the sea bed this ongoing process is what
baffles me to question the very
premise to preserve the environment.
The answers lies in the natures
realms and we have to see parallels in our
lives now don’t we eat to survive
even as we are destined to die?

So is conservation too….

O Mountains O Mountains of Things

11.12.2007
Internationl Day of Mountains.

a day for a mountains or should i say a date with a mountains,
in the era of perplexed fads for national days, international
days and days for all days.
The importance and the human dexterity to remember all these
days is fading non the less we will have more such days nominated
in the coming days(again days!!).
I rather take my share of an important day
in December the 11th.
UN has nominated December 11 as the
International Day of Mountains,
A day to revere, glorify and celebrate humongous mounts and
the petite mounds in the ecological scheme of
things their stature to quench human avarice is boundless.
We profuse about air and water as crucial to life on earth,
the mountain ecosystem is the vital anchors to air and water.
with the evident ghosts of climate change the mountains bear the physical
brunt’s, with the glacial retracts and its adversities, apart from the human exploits.

( Kodanad Range shot from Bluemeen Kadavu)

If mesmerized can mean anything better?

precisely why it doesn't stop charming
people from across the globe.
It is Ooty though and not the Ootacamund
that we grew up to, but it is still dearer to
us. It is said that John Sullivan
(founder of modern Ooty) first viewed
Ootacamund from around this place and
fell in love with it and the rest
is.....................

(shot taken from Gorishola)

Playing to the Nature's Tune

The Indian Scimitar Babbler
Pomatorhinus erythrogenys.

Bird again but a special one at that,
resident breeding bird
shy, rare to sight and having an unusual
calling - so musically synchronized
to hear the male and female babbling's.
These avians plays a crucial role
in the ecosystem as seed disburser,
scavenger, preying on insects and
above all it is a vital sign denoting to the
ecological health of area.


(shot near Doddabetta Nilgiris)

Left out in the Vision 2020 bandwagon!!

Panthi

a irula herds women in Hallimoyar, Nilgiris
for her and many others in her community -
life is all about cattles and Hallimayor seldom venturing
beyond, weathering the sun, rains and wilderness they
survive on meagres of the low milk yielding cows
(stock mainly reared for their cow dung).
With the bovine stock rearing discouraged in this area,
there is a dilution in their culture and loss of livelihood as their
grazing lands,come under the Nilgiri Eastern Ghats Elephant
Reserves preview. Hence they are marginalised
for the sake of greater common good! on the other
side in the name of development, the fringe areas of these
forests are vanishing.
Now is their loss of livelihood and culture justified?