A trip to the western ghats

I had mentioned that Kerala is blessed with natural landscapes of three kinds. The coastal areas, the midlands with rolling hills merging into one another and the high ranges called the western ghats. The western ghats run all the way from the southern part of Kerala to almost near to Bombay in the north westerly direction.



Legend has it that Kerala was formed when Parasuraman an avatar of Lord Siva in Hindu mythology threw an axe and the land was formed from the seas. Indeed there are indications that many of the land that we have today may have been sea earlier times.



One such indication is that coastal areas have a sandy top soil running into kilometers inland. Another is that in these areas when sand is dug we come across a lot of shells. I am no scientist so these needs to be taken as less scientific. Nevertheless one cannot prima facie deny any more than accept these indications. Yet another of these indications is the names of certain places. Kaduthuruthy almost 30 kms inland translated means the coastal land although the sea is far away which by conjecture may mean that once this place was close to the sea.



From a cultural ecosystem perspective the fact that these topogrpahical features tucked so close together provides an ecosystem biodiversity in such a small area.



Me and Jeff went to a place called Calvary mount on the western ghats on Saturday 15th Dec 2007 and came back on 16th. The first year students of my college were having a camp over there.(More on the camp is available in a separate blogpost.) The place is serene with not so much of cold and not too much of people either. Most of the areas around are hills or forests.



Most importantly the proximity to the Idukky dam system makes the area a tourist spot as well. Climbing the calvary mount gives a view of the reservoir made by the threesome dams idukki , kulamavu amd cheruthoi, of which idukki has no outlet, cheruthomni is opened only in case of excess water and kulamavu is the only perrenial outlet. The rest of the water is sent through underground tunnels to the Moolamattom powerhouse and hte water is left into the Thodupuzha river system. The system provides the Thodupuzha river with water perennially and that too cool water from the ghats. Something so natural and available so close to one's birthplace is much too precious to be left unspoken.