Plastic free Nilgiris!!

posted in: Uncategorized | 6
27 December 2008
Below is a picture of the dumping yard of Ooty. An area supposed to be green is filled with filth, a disgrace for the hill station and to ecologically sensitive Nilgiris biosphere.

In Ooty, I saw several boards mentioning that Nilgiris is a plastic free district. To be honest, it is true, though partly. People in the shops don’t give the items in plastic bags. The culprits seem to be the tourists who throng Ooty every year. Practically, it is not possible to check each person entering Ooty for plastics. And we all know that majority of the people visiting a hill station like Ooty do not have a basic understanding of keeping the environment clean. Naturally, dumping yard is full of plastics.
Readers may have some doubt on why I visited this dumping yard. The strange circumstances that day made me to stop and take snaps of this squalid place.

We had planned to visit restricted zones of Western Catchment area. Getting permits to visit those places was not easy, but Sankara managed to arrange for the same though his contacts. But there is a saying “Man proposes but God disposes”. The Jeep driver who was supposed to take us to Western Catchment arrived late and not wanting to waste time waiting for him, we made a quick trip to Avalanche and returned back!! When back in Ooty, Jeep driver was ready but he broke out the news that the road to Western Catchment had collapsed. His suggestion was to take our cars and head to Parson’s valley which offered some stunning views.

I do not know what standard the Jeep driver used when he told that the road to Parson’s valley was good for car. The road was hopeless that put a lot of strain on the car and the people inside it. Hoping to find better roads, we managed to travel for 7-8 km. It was then we got to see this garbage dumping place. The road went right into the dumping yard. The state of the road further was beyond our imagination. We decided to return back.
On a normal day, I would have just passed by the filth lamenting about the bad state of affairs of this country. But since the destiny did not allow reaching the destination of the day, I took few snaps of this “great” place, with one hand on the camera and other on my nose!!!!

6 Responses

  1. Ravi S Ghosh

    Hi Aravind;

    Saw you post about Ethina Bhujja and surrounding area. It seems you are well versed with that area. So, thought you might guide me a little. I’m planning to do Amedikallu on a weekend (leave blr on friday and leave dharmasthala on sunday). Since, we will get down by next day afternoon, is there any nearby waterfalls, etc. there where we can relax and then catch the night bus to Bangalore. From your description Ananda falls seems to be pretty far given we are relying on public transport. Any other option you can suggest?

    Also, I have taken the liberty to add your blog here
    http://trekwiki.wetpaint.com/page/Related+Websites

    Hope you will mind.

  2. Aravind GJ

    Rajesh,

    True. Very few people travel on that road… but is there any better option to dump the garbage? I don’t know.

    Ravi,

    There are many waterfalls… but most of them are at interior location and need some amount of trekking. You can visit Ermayee falls, not much of trekking and hopefully you may get public transport. (I have mentioned about that falls in Anadka post)

    After coming back from Amedikal, you can also visit Shishileshwara Temple at Shishila… and there are many fishes (just like in Sringeri) in the river next to it… a nice place.

  3. Ravi S Ghosh

    Ermayee falls to seems to be around 55-60 km from Shishila. But Shishileshwara temple option sounds pretty good. We will be easily able to go there walking and get back to dharmasthala on time too. Thanks Aravind for the suggestions.

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