Foot Hill Farmer: The Beauty & The Beast- The Ugly Pavilion at Enchanting Nadukani.

Your blogger went up to the high altitude District H.Q. at Idukki to meet a senior officer and personally request the resolution of a a long pending application - construction of a 50 meter road through a paddy field where rice was last cultivated 37 seasons ago.

To those who do not live in Kerala or is not conversant with the Malayali way of life, just understand that this is a place where scant regard is paid to the environment and if at all any protection is enforced, the burden is almost entirely placed on the shoulders of the farmers and those minuscule group of self employed small entrepreneurs. The biggest polluter is the government itself. Some public sector industries pump out its toxic effluents directly into river and the sea. No questions are asked and the fierce environmentalists of the state, mostly city dwelling politically embedded activists, conveniently look the other way. The massive polluters, living in the cities, bureaucrats, merchants and the consumerist populace has no duty or compulsion to protect the nature. So the yoke is placed on the farming community, and your blogger - a foot hill farmer - happens to be one among this hapless breed. A quasi judicial permission is needed for the farmers to make a road in his won property.

Unfortunately my officer was busy clearing up the work back log on the penultimate day of retiring from service and was not available. Having expected to be tied up there your blogger had planned nothing else for the day and so on the relaxed drive down through the tropical forest - relishing the fresh air and enjoying the greenery all round, he decided to stop by at the Nadukani Pavilion overlooking one of the most scenic views in the high ranges of Kerala.

If you travel this way try out the location. It is worth a visit. When driving up from Thodupuzha, it's is hardly 33 kilo meters to the place. Turning left at the junction to Moolamattam at Asoka, the climb begins. At the summit , 800 meters above mean sea level is Kulamavu Dam one of 3 that hold the Idukki reservoir. Your road to Idukki passes over this Dam beyond which tropical forest swallow the road under its verdant canopy .

As soon as you begin the climb with 12 hair- pin bends, the air becomes cool and the oxygen pumped out by the vast rain forest fills the lungs with freshness that only the pristine mother nature can provide.

The hill route is so scenic and serene that even a lonely rider would switch off the car music system because here even melody of music could be considered a nuisance. This ride is absolutely breath taking.

Just before the hydel dam, is a scenic a look- out called Nadukani { നാടു കാണി } which can be crudely translated into our tongue Malayalam as ‘the-bird’s- eye-view-point ’.
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So riding back the blogger drove up the small approach road to reach the pavilion in great expectation and the scenery was as mesmerizing as ever. But the Pavilion building is in a sorry state of disrepair it could very well be an apt euphemism for our Malayali’s psyche.

The road is well paved- a smooth ride. The Pavilion is well marked for the visitors.

The entrance. The ubiquitous stray dogs of Kerala. One was there to welcome me.

More than 27,800 people have sought treatment for dog bite in various government hospitals in the state and Rs.10 crore ( $ 1.6 million ) had been spent on treatment, the mister recently told the State Legislative Assembly. Rabies is killing people - mostly the poor. Morning walkers and school children are also affected by the menace. The government is aware of the serious threat caused to people by street dogs and would like to redress the menace. But some pressure groups will not allow killing even a part of the over grown dog population. I have seen on Discovery channel the forest rangers of African National Parks selectively shooting old wild elephants owing to the over population, to protect the environment. But here, a person who killed a dog with rabies that had bitten off the cheek of a 4 year old school going girl child was prosecuted.

The entry pass is sold by a lonely man at the ground level of the pavilion.

മല മുകളിലെ പാവം ശൂർപണക

View from the other side.

There are two levels for the view deck. This one is the top level.

Things have improved a bit with the ticketed entry . About a decade ago I came here with friends while staying at the nearby resort. Then the walls were full of distasteful graffiti and the floor strewn with filth.

Now it's time to enjoy the breath taking views of the Western Ghats.

Directly facing you, across the expanse of the valley is the ഇലപ്പള്ളി മല beyond which is the equally beautiful tea gardens of Vagamon.

[ വാഗമണ്‍ ]

Moolamattam Valley. The clearing in the green is the power generation switch yard.
The generators are tucked away safely inside a tunnel in the mountain.

There was no one else there. I stood facing the valley as a gentle wind caressed me. A few birds were chirping but I could not spot them. I was glad I didn't meet the official in her pompous office.

Over the recent years I have gradually given up taking photographs, even while traveling abroad. But Nadukani made me bring out the camera - may be because the phones have made them so handy. The state of the pavilion did not make me furious or sad. In old days, returning from a trip abroad, I used to pontificate. My poor students ! How, they must have suffered. And I am sorry for all that kids. Your professor is a changed man now. I want you to know that I have reconciled to our state and its men. Keralam ! this place - my land and my people -we have strange priorities and peculiar preferences. We stubbornly resist all changes - whether good or bad. It has been so for such a long time it can be assumed that this attitude can change only with passage of time. So why fret or fume about it? Meanwhile- mother nature's gifts are free and abundant here. Enjoy it as they come your way is my philosophy now.

Far to the right of the picture you can see the Thodupuzha river. She has to flow a few more miles to reach the town of Thodupuzha after which she is named - a vibrant town at the foot hills of the Western Ghats - which your blogger calls home..

Nadukani- a flashback -I have come here a few times - the first - as a small boy - probably in 1964. One day my father told that he was taking us to the place in the forest where an arch dam was being built. A few members of the extended family also joined us. We set off in two jeeps. The roads were very narrow then. Even now I remember vividly the winding roads over which our jeep went crawling up. Those days, all along path, there used to be a kind of lavishly flowering bush, on both sides of the road. But one seldom see those plants today, perhaps the widening of the road might have done them in.

This is the completed dam.

When we were there the work of the dam had not begun and no concrete was poured yet. But at the site they had set up a few corrugated roof sheds and high above, a new road was carved out of the rocks, about 600 meters from the river bed; between Kurvan Mala & Kurathi Mala. As I stood in the shallow waters of Periyar and looked up to see the road that seemed to touch the heavens, some one told the group, that is where the dam's top would be leveled off.

But here today - at Nadukani - this rock formation by the pavilion has a small private significance for me. On the way up to the Idukki dam site we had stopped at Nadukani. There was no pavilion then nor was this safety ledge. Hardly any one visited. We stood a little away from the edge of the deep precipice enjoying the view.. Then one of my elder cousins who was carrying my little sister decided to show off how brave he was. He jumped on to this rock with her - the one over which the fence passes. There was wind blowing and her hair was waving in the wind. My sister who was around 4 years then, was talking to him, gleefully pointing her arms across the valley at some thing far away that had caught her fancy.

Me, being a little older and so wiser looked on apprehensively from the safety of the distance, until the elders would call him back. That image at Nadukani got etched in my memory like a photograph.

Or else the picture given above of this insignificant rock, would never have found its place in this blog.

A lone tree at the entrance to the pavilion - ever since it was born; this tree has been enjoying one of the most magnificent views - this part of the land.