SpeakOut#7 - Eye-Openers from Idukki Forest Reserves (2/3)

As we came to our place of stay at Vellapara and went in and around the forest at Idukki what we noticed was we couldn't spot any wild animals of any sort except a blue parrot and green spider, but we saw a lot of dried up and burnt shrubs, plants and even trees. At first it didn't click to our slow minds that what we were seeing were huge wounds to an ailing forest. The weather was extremely hot once it was mid-day so it didn't occur to us but later seeing burnt trees at a lot of places, it hit me like a brick on my head that this could only be man-made. Suddenly the reason why all the signboards and constant repetitions to fight against forest fires dawned upon me. Forest Fires are 90% man made!
A talk with our Forest Ranger in charge enlightened us on the situation of how ignorant people set fire to these areas for personal purposes to try bring around some kind of cultivation or to protest against the authorities for wrong reasons. Another sad thing I realised was that this problem wasn't confined just here but everywhere.

Peermade, another beautiful hill range in Idukki that borders Kottayam (i.e. where I come from) is one of the picturesque beauties where we camped for a week last December as part of the NSS activities. Even there one morning, we spotted a fire but I thought that it was done on private land so it didn't bother me much, but then I realised from Vellapara that the situation was all same around and  that land was not private.

What these people do not realise is that they're setting fire to human lives along with this, maybe not directly on themselves but to their children who will suffer later from a weak and dying environment that has lost its ties with man. The Keralite's disinterest in involving with nature is already seen by the dependency on Tamil Nadu's vegetable and fruit produce. After the MullaPeriyar problem however the warning bells sounded loud and clear and even I have started working a bit in the backyard with my father at times who loves tending to his land in his spare time.

Anyways, back to the Reserves, it isn't that all is lost at Idukki. It still keeps its beauty despite the damage, with the variety in landscapes and trees and waters held around. It is a sight from heaven when you're there early morning. At the end of our stay, we were asked if anything caught our attention here and what we could do for nature. My answer was the Dams and the Forest Fires and that I'm not the activist who could run around demanding changes but I can help make people aware from the contacts I have and the media I use to interact with people. Word of Mouth and the Internet.

SpeakOut#4 - Stay at the Idukki Forest Reserves

The place where we stayed for this visit was at the Forest Office's Educational Centre at Vellapara, Idukki built for students like us who come to learn from the place. It was very simple, neat and nice place with two big rooms for accommodating the visitors 'male' and 'female' and a hall for lectures, classes and movies on nature. The kitchen was kept outside and so was the dining area which made the dining part of our visit entertaining with our jokes around and letting us view the landscape around while eating. These were basically the places of our main interest at our place of stay. One can see the Cheruthoni Dam from where we stayed.

The one thing unusual to us were the early morning trips to the terrace to do Yoga.  The main officer in charge of the Forest Office there made it a must that everyone who came there had to involve in Yoga to realise the grand experience that relaxes your body and does the repair and maintenance of your body.

However that was of no interest to quite some lazybums like me. I didn't quit the practise anyhow.

I can say proudly I loved the asana where you lie on your stomach just like how you sleep and snore on your bed in a cold morning hearing the birds chirp and the smell of the dirt on the land which comes when it goes moist from the morning dew.