03/10/2013
Eco Tour from Ooty:
UDHAGAMANDALAM: The Nilgiris South Division of forests is all set to launch a new eco-tourism package traversing 'Ooty-Cairnhill-Avalanchee-Lakkidi' forest areas from Wednesday onwards.
The forest department had been offering eco-tourism from the Avalanchee forest check post to Lakkidi and the back waters of Upper Bhavani, through the Eco Development Committee (EDC) for the past one year. But the visitors had to get to Avalanche check post on their own as there was no public transport available in the reserve forest area.
Avalanche is an important tourism destination in the Nilgiris, 25km from Ooty town. The Nilgiris is well known for its grassland and sholas ecosystem, where more than 2700 species of flowering plants, 160 species of fern and fern allies, countless types of non-flowering plants, seedless plants, mosses, fungi, algae, and land linches are found.
"Most tourists are unaware of the naturally equipped areas and nature lovers are stupefied during their initial visits," said C Badrasamy, DFO, south division. Hence it has become the duty of the forest department to create awareness among people about sholas, grasslands, wildlife and their conservation, he added.
Tourists have been visiting the Avalanche area through eco-tourism conducted by EDC involving local Toda tribes. "Now we have proposed to launch an eco tour to Avalanche from Ooty itself as a one-day package covering the Tribal Museum located in Palada, Cairn Hill, an eco awareness centre near Ooty," said Badrasamy.
The package includes lunch and snacks and is priced at Rs.750 per head. Tourists will be picked up from Ooty in a van and after the tour, they will be dropped back in Ooty. According to Badrasamy, the money generated through this package will go to the committee's account and will be utilized to improve the welfare of the tribes and other forest dependants.
The tour will take the visitors to a Tribal Museum located in the Tribal Research Centre. The museum houses a rich heritage of traditional utility equipments as well models of dwellings of the six tribal groups in the Nilgiris. Tourists will also get a glimpse of a wild stream that forms a water fall after crossing a temple named after Bhavani Amman. The stream is the main source for the Upper Bhavani Dam and is said to be one of the origins of the Bhavani River. The end point of the eco tour is Lakkidi, the back water of the Upper Bhavani dam located amidst grasslands and pockets of sholas. And if one is lucky, it is possible to sight wild animals including sambar, gaur, panther and sometimes even tigers.
On the way back to Ooty, the visitors are taken to Cairn Hill, 300 meters away from the main road. It is a reserve forest spread across 167.7 hectares and has one of the oldest Cyprus Plantations in the Nilgiris. The place houses an information and interpretation centre with a shola landscaping model.
