The Majestic Nilgiri Mountain Railway

 

 The Majestic Nilgiri Mountain Railway

A tourist can discover the thrill of riding a wondrous toy train, which provides an aperture to panoramic vistas during the three and half hour journey from Mettupalayam to Ooty. The voyage offers an exotic and unparalleled train travel experience. Ooty is a paradise for travel enthusiasts desirous of basking in a tranquil place packed with myriad landmarks.

Ooty, a fabled travel getaway can be reached by road or rail. However boarding the toy train provides a singular experience as there is an abrupt romance in the air and a spring in the step. It is veritable love at first sight as a tripper travels from Ooty to Ketti, crisscrossing the celebrated Nilgiri Mountains. The train navigates tunnels, curves and bridges. Traversing a distance of 46km from Mettupalayam at the foothills to Ooty on the lofty peak, a tripper carouses breathtaking views of terraced, green, tea plantations, steep valleys and towering, swaying trees. For its sheer majesty, this enthralling expedition has been appropriately designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This is the only heritage train which motors at the highest elevated place in Southern India.

The Nilgiri Mountain Railway is a railway in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, was initially operated by the Madras Railway. It is a tribute to the robust mechanical and civil engineering departments of the British rulers that the railway still relies on its fleet of steam locomotives. This promptly connects the globetrotter to the past and the rich heritage bequeathed to us.

The toy train service first commenced operations between Coonoor and Mettupalayam during 1899 (certainly seems aeons ago). This was to link the army establishment of the sovereigns based at Wellington. The railway system provided transportation and crucial supplies to the British army. The bulwarks of the conquerors over natives were the civil administrative system, railways, police and the postal system. The foreign rulers were shaken to their core on account of the challenges posed by the First War of Independence in 1857 (also called the Mutiny of 1857). 

However, commercial reasons weighed on the minds of the railway mandarins and this alluring and spellbinding line was extended up to Ooty in the year 1908 to cross subsidise railway operations and also to extend the empire beyond Coonoor to Ooty. The maiden passenger service was initiated on 15 October, 1908 between Ooty and Coonoor.

Ooty, also known as Udhagamandalam in Tamil, is a hill station in the state of Tamil Nadu. It is encircled by dense forest cover and a gargantuan population of swaying eucalyptus trees. The liquid extracted from the trees acts like a magic potion for a person suffering from the pestilence of cold and fever.

Ooty was a largely British town in pre-independence India, far from the heat and humidity of the Madras Presidency. Alfred Tennyson referred this place as the “sweet half-English air of Neilgherry”. For Lord Lytton, Viceroy of India, Ooty had “Hertfordshire lanes, Devonshire downs, Westmoreland lakes, Scotch trout streams and Lusitanian views” which reminded him of being home in the cool climes of England.

There are several attractions to witness- a spectacular mountain range, a hop at Coonoor and eventually visit Ooty while travelling by the amazing rack and pinion rail system. A few years back there was a change in traction from steam to diesel as the train traversed between Coonoor and Ooty, which led to protests by the local denizens. Tippers did not wish the snapping of the umbilical cord of the past heritage.

The Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) is a major tourist attraction. Approximately 5 lakh people travel every year by this toy train. Tourists depart from Mettupalayam at 7.30 am and the train moves across the serpentine bends and curves.

This train covers a distance of 46 km in five hours snaking through Hilligrove, Coonoor, Wellington, Aruvankadu, Ketti and Lovedale stations, eventually terminating at Udhagamandalam or Ooty. Whenever the train abruptly comes to a grinding halt, passengers pluck flowers from trees with glee.

During every start on the hill slopes the engine invariably gives a jerk while gaining momentum to push the train from the rear. After travelling three or four kilometres in the hills, occasionally the train comes to a sudden halt as a lofty eucalyptus tree would have fallen on the tracks and the process of cutting and salvaging work to restore traffic would be in progress. After a brief halt of 15 to 20 minutes the journey resumes. This is quite a regular feature and adds spice to the rail journey.

Vintage steam engines ply on part of the route. Coaches are small in size with multiple coupes, each with doors on either side. The average speed barely touches 10-12 km/ hr and no one seems to be in a hurry, rather luxuriating in the slumber where time appears to have frozen. Much of the journey by the Nilgiri Mountain Railway feels like travelling in British India, before the advent of the frenzied, frenetic pace.

The first two stations, Lovedale and Ketti, are buried deep in the woods. Tall, thick eucalyptus trees surround the idyllic stations. The compact station houses virtually appear as log cabins. Snatches of birdsong fill the air.

It isn’t merely the town names which are evocative of the British Raj. Different old semaphore signals are fixed on the route, and not the modern electric signals. Drivers hand in a bamboo hoop with a metallic tablet at every station—this “token" is a testimony to ensure the arrival of the train.

Coonoor which also houses the Wellington Staff College reminds the tripper on the route that they are connected with modern day India. This is the bijou town where passengers alight, and witness the steam engine attach itself to the train. Inside the distinctive black chamber are gauges, pipes, knobs and analogue metres distinctively out of a 19th century science fiction book.

Post a relaxed chugging on the plain, the train crawls into the station premises of Ooty sometime in late afternoon. The sightseer looks back at the misty silhouette of the Nilgiris in the distance which by now have carved an indelible impression on the mind.

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end,” writes Ursula K. Le Guin.

 

 

 

18. India Wildlife Travel

“Every creature was designed to serve a purpose. Learn from animals for they are there to teach you the way of life. There is a wealth of knowledge that is openly accessible in nature. Our ancestors knew this and embraced the natural cures found in the bosoms of the earth. Their classroom was nature. They studied the lessons to be learned from animals. Much of human behaviour can be explained by watching the wild beasts around us. They are constantly teaching us things about ourselves and the way of the universe, but most people are too blind to watch and listen.” Thus writes Suzy Kassem, daughter of an Egyptian mystic and a popular American author and poetess.

The deafening roar of carnivores shatters the hush and shush in verdant jungles. Humans would perhaps like to listen to the quieter creatures, rather than those species on the prowl.

 The gargantuan national parks such as Ranthambhore or Bandhavgarh are prodigious places, where jungle cats and other animals move with sheer majesty in the midst of strewn ruins. The Kaziranga National Park in the state of Assam, houses two-thirds of the world’s one-horned rhinos. National and international tourists throng the place in humongous numbers. Certainly it is an ‘Aha!’ moment when they capture images of the rhinos on their glitzy mobiles.

Globe trotters also traverse less-fancied fauna hangouts, such as the Idukki Wildlife Sanctuary or Thattekad Bird Sanctuary in Kerala or the Gir National Park in Gujarat where Asiatic lions yawn at the lesser beings. These lions, in a statuesque manner cross the tracks of the Bhavnagar- Gondia line as the petrified gang man hurries for cover!

 India is a Brobdingnagian hub for many variegated types of birds. Keoladeo National Park in Bharatpur, Rajasthan is of course one of the most famous ones. This is an entirely different other world of natural and cultural heritage which is to be seen to be believed. The park was a hunting ground for the maharajas of Bharatpur, a tradition dating back to the 1850s. Duck shoots were the order of the day in honour of the British potentates. The year was 1938, when over 4,273 birds such as mallards and teals were killed by Lord Linlithgow, then Viceroy of India, in one devastating shooting expedition. 

 

  A Few National Parks that Enthrall   

Bandhavgarh National Park

For several trippers, this is the toast among bestial beauties in India and is often included on the Delhi-Taj circuit. Rugged, arid landscapes combined with dense forest trails, a gamut of gorgeous wild cats (including the white and Bengal tigers and leopards), sambar, nilgai, and gaur makes it an enthralling experience. Several of these animals take refuge in the rocks and ruins around the centuries old Bandhavgarh Fort. Large numbers of tourists traverse to this authentic location.

Gujarat

The Little Rann of Kutch is where wild asses, chinkara, desert foxes and striped hyenas move around the mirage of shimmering saline deserts. Another choice for a tourist is the Velavadar National Park with its blackbuck beauties and of course the Gir National Park where the suzerainty of Asiatic lion is indisputable. 

 Kanha National Park

The map of this Indian tiger habitat is enchanting, as if a red carpet were laid out for the lethal cat to elegantly stroll across the length of the country. In the epicentre is the Kanha National Park where tigers and leopards ingeniously stroll through the grassy plateaus, misty plains and bamboo forests. Like accomplished paparazzi, a tripper can camp to await these and other prepossessing starlets of this animal kingdom -sambar, chital, monkeys and mongoose.

Keoladeo National Park

Among the interesting dichotomies of our country, is the vast expanse of wetland in the middle of a desert state. This had been flooded purely for delectation of the Maharajas and erstwhile Viceroys who with great gusto shot birds out of the sky. It is bountiful grace of the nature that over 360 species still thrive here. These range from kingfishers to coots, from storks to birds of prey.

Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary

Kumbalgarh is the place for concentration of leopards and their exploits. The word ‘sanctuary’ will perpetually seem infinitesimal as this wild cat races with alacrity and feasts on its prey with remarkable speed. The animal’s habitat stretches for almost 600km across Rajasthan’s Aravalli Hills and assumes its name from the magnificent fortress that dominates the area. Further backpackers can have a visual treat looking out for hyenas, wolves, nilgai, the debonair golden chinkara and the chausingha, a four-horned antelope.

Snow Leopards in Ladakh

Ladakh, now one of the newest Union Territories of India, extends from the Siachen Glacier in the Karakoram Range to the Great Himalayas to the south and is inhabited by people of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent.

This is virtually the roof of the world; absolutely a surrealistic place to be in, where one experiences one of the finest wildlife encounters in the world - a glimpse of the grandiose snow leopard. 

Pench National Park

Apparently this park fired the imagination of Rudyard Kipling and compelled him to write the much celebrated ‘The Jungle Book’. Far divested from fiction this is now a land of Bengal tigers, which enjoy the habitat around the Satpura Hills or the Pench River valleys. While it is also called the Pench Tiger Reserve, the striped beauties are extremely elusive to spot. A traveller can however see herds of gaur (Indian bison), chital, sambar and nilgai as well as sloth bear and civets.

Periyar National Park

This park is a veritable visual treat for lovers of nature. Neatly nestled in Kerala’s Western Ghats, this is not only a tiger reserve but also habitat for elephants, monkeys, wild pigs and hundreds of species of bird. Furthermore animal lovers can gaze at the Indian bison, which gather with their fellow fauna at the Periyar Lake.

Ranthambore National Park

Ranthambore is home to the Bengal tigers. There are jungle covered ruins where leopards and wild cats are easily camouflaged. Beside the Chambal and its tributaries, sloth bears and black bucks gather. There are vast open plains, claimed by the likes of chital, nilgai and chinkara.

Sariska National Park

This is a popular resort and national park in the valorous state of Rajasthan. It is a tiger reserve, although not many have survived the vicissitudes of life in the arid forests and rocky cliffs of the Aravalli Hills. Besides, the place is also home to leopard, jungle cats, hyena, chausingha and sambar. These species are found sauntering around an ancient temple complex and 16^th century Kankwadi fort.

These ten national parks provide an aperture to the animal kingdom which astonish the novice enthusiast and professional wildlife watchers alike. Yes, the more ferocious is man…who has ravaged nature to fulfil his capricious demands.

 “The only good cage is an empty cage,” wrote noted environmentalist and conservationist Lawrence Anthony.