The Palani Hils are an offshoot of the Western Ghats, the oldest mountain rage in the world where underlying rocks are billions of years old. They are 87 kilometers long 24 kilometers wide and occupy an area of about 2000 square kilometers. The highest point is Vadaravu Hill, which rises to 2533 meters. The Palnis comprise two distinct geographical zones, the Upper Palnis and the Lower Palanis. The Lower are at an elevation of 1000-1500 meters. This is coffee, banana and orange country, not to mention avocado, pineapple and cardamom. The Upper Palnis at 1520-2250 meters border the state of Kerala. Here we have terraced potato and garlic farms and pear, plum and peach orchards.
But let us go back to the time before peaches, plums and potatoes invaded these hills. It was a rich and species packed environment. Hapitats varied from humid evergreen ground-cover where damp-loving frogs liver, to rolling natural meadows, home of the Black Panther.
Hill fauna
The high elevations of the palanis were typified by three natural eosystems: steep rock escarpments, frasslands and shoals. The rock bluffs and precipices, sometimes overlooking sheer drops of two to three thousand metres, were the home of the Nilgiri tahr, an endangered “goat-sheep” whose nearest relative is the Himalayan tahr across the span of the country. Once seen in great herds in the Palnis, they have been hunted down to a few small groups which are ever alert to the approach of humans and seem to disappear as soon as sighted. In the lower elevations the shoulders of rock made perfect homes for the Indian rock python. Five and six metre individuals are still around and often settle near villages to enjoy to enhoy the easy supply of rats and chickens.
Kurinji blooms in Kodaikanal
Slung between the high roock outcrops like acres and acres of green velvet and criss-crossed by clear sparkling streams, were the grasslands. According to the botanist Fr K M Matthew, “These rolling downs of the undulating plateaux once occupied here fourths of the Upper palnis. The herbivorous wildlife grazed in the grasslands which was also the home of countless insects. These grasslands were a unique feature of the upper plateaux.” It was wild, isolated country, its only calendar the twelve-yearly flowering of the Strobilanthus or kurunji flower, which covered the hillsides with its purple blooms.
In the valleys there are dense patches of broad-leaved, evergreen rain forests called shoals. Unlike rain forests on the plains, the trees here do not reach majestic heights because of the high altitude and constant, heavy wind. These moss and lichen laden forests are prime watersheds. They absorb water during the monsoon and release it judiciously all year round. When we cut forests we are breaking down what Fr Mathew calls our water tanks, resulting in floods during the monsoon and drought to follow.
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