Chennai: Tamil Nadu’s green power generation has increased with a high contribution of hydro power in the last two days. Heavy rain in the Nilgiris district helped contribute to the high hydro power generation. Along with wind and solar, the total green power generation crossed 38%. Tamil Nadu’s hydro power …
ON the World Environment Day on Thursday, green activists in Nilgiris demanded the conservation of Nilgiri Hills to save it from destruction. Nilgiris is the first biosphere reserve in the country and is the district where the forest coverage is around 55 percent. Nilgiris is the abode for varieties of …
Sholas, which represent a unique vegetation complex, are very rich in biodiversity and support a high degree of endemism are known for their intrinsic values in terms of providing sustained water supply in the hills. Shola forests faced severe stress from biotic interferences like collection of firewood and fodder, recurrent …
IN a bid to explore new ways of promoting tourism here, the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC) has come out with a novel proposal to implement "Cycle Tourism" among children. According to sources, the TD has tied up with a private bicycle manufacturing company to introduce the scheme in …
THE Madras High Court has directed the authorities concerned to stop all illegal quarrying/mining activities in the hill area of The Nilgiris. Wherever mining or quarrying was being carried out unauthorisedly they should be , sealed forthwith and further action taken in accordance with law, the First Bench observed. The …
Satellite images show fires along Nilgiri, Agastyarkoodam; grasslands in Upper Sanatorium area and Kambimoodu destroyed Fires also broke out in Mannarkkad forest range near Silent Valley on Saturday Hot winds blowing from Tamil Nadu have caused the temperatures to rise THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Forest fires have broken out at several parts of …
The red spider mite (Panonychus ulmi) is threatening tea plantations in the Nilgiri hills. The infestation has been reported from a number of places including Coonoor, Kotagiri, Kundah and Udhagamandalam in Tamil Nadu, notes a statement issued by the Tea Board of India and the Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Tamil Nadu. …
Mass-flowering of neelakurinji (Strobilanthes kunthiana) is at its climax in the vast tracts of the southern Western Ghats. The little flower with no fragrance blooms once every 12 years. The endangered shrub is found in the shola grasslands, at an altitude of over 1,500 metres. The Nilgiris, the Palani hills …
function table() { var popurl="image/20060430/47-table.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=400,height=350,scrollbars=yes") } "We don't want any free clothes, education or even food. All we want are our lands and forests,' demands Karrian. The 60-year-old from Devalaya hamlet of Gudalur taluka in Tamil Nadu's Nilgiri district belongs to the Panniya tribe. Anthropologists classify this tribe as …
effluents from a pharmaceutical unit have become a major cause of concern for Nilgiri district of Tamil Nadu. Sterling Biotech (sb), located in Solayur village, produces gelatin and di-calcium phosphate from animal bones. It is owned by Rallis India Limited, which is a Tata enterprise. To wash the bones, sb …
populations of the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) across India do not belong to one family, according to T N C Vidya and R Sukumar of the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science (iisc), Bangalore. The pachyderm population has undergone considerable genetic separation in two particular pockets, due to …
function graph() { var popurl="image/20040930/26-graphs.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=300,height=475,scrollbars=yes") } High altitude sickness The Brits made India's hill-stations. Invariably, a responsible officer of the colonial government chanced upon a scene of delirious beauty that completely seduced his senses. Ootacamund or Udagamandalam (Ooty) in the Western Ghats was
function illustration() { var popurl="image/20040930/30-illus.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=500,height=450,scrollbars=yes") } Scarcity amidst plenty summarises the water problem ailing hill-stations today. They receive good rainfall but there is no mechanism to collect runoff for later use. Result: water shortage every year. How did the Brits manage it? They cashed on the terrain, and gravity, …
The stinky spectacle of hill-stations getting buried under their own garbage is turning more real. Look down the slopes and you will see mounds of coloured plastic bags, and tourist staples such as empty packets of potato chips and plastic water bottles. All of which is mixed with vegetable waste …
Evam Piljain, an 80-year-old Toda who's spent all her life in Ooty, feels distraught at the sight of her hometown. "I cannot sit in the verandah anymore,' she says. She moves to her drawing room and gazes wistfully at a photograph of Ooty taken in the early part of the …
Planning is non-existent for India's hill-stations, admit hill municipalities. In the absence of a master plan, a free-for-all situation prevails where one constructs wherever one finds free space; if there is lack of space, one can simply add another storey to one's house. There is no tourist plan, which becomes …
Incredible India. The land of mystic splendour. The hidden paradise. These are just three slogans to convince people to turn themselves into tourists and land up, every summer, in droves in hill-stations. Ooty's annual flower show attracts 0.2 million tourists over two days. In addition, it receives over 0.3 million …
There are worry lines all over the face of M K Bhojan, a small tea grower in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu. Tea prices have fallen cataclysmically in the last few years, affecting small farmers like Bhojan most acutely. In 1997-98, one kilogramme (kg) of green tea leaf fetched …
Writ Petition number 202 of 1995; Godavarman v the Union of India and others. This is the ‘forest case’ being heard in Supreme Court for the past seven years. With more than 800 interlocutory applications (ias) filed, the case will dictate the fate of India’s forests and an estimated 10 …
The God Aihn rules over Amunawdr, the realm of the dead. He is a dairyman and created the Todas and their buffaloes. To qualify for entry into the afterworld, the Todas of the Nilgiris must follow all prescribed ceremonies. This belief is the pivot of Toda culture. An ancient tribal …
