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 …
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 …
Landslides in Nilgiris are mainly due to rainfall, but human intervention in the form of deforestation and plantation has turned this into a calamity. This study in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu with the help of Global Land Cover Facility data reveals that there is a drastic reduction in …
Though there have been very many reports on illegal trade, this is the probably the first on Trade in Nilgiri Bio Reserve Area. This report is the result of an extensive study conducted at odd hours for six months. No word of this report can be challenged as Vatavaran has …
A field experiment under runoff plots was conducted at Devala, Gudallur taluk of the Nilgiris from 2001 to 2003 to evaluate the impact of vegetative barriers and mechanical measures on erosion losses on 25 per cent sloping land under cultivation of cassava.
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 …
a biosphere reserve on the lines of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve ( nbr ) is being developed at Anaikatti, 35 km from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. The Coimbatore Zoological Park Society ( czps ) is developing the miniature nbr , where the emphasis would be on the conservation of both flora …
