Today was an exciting, adventurous and tiring day all rolled into one with a lot of new experiences involved? After a sumptuous breakfast of unlimited idlis, chutney and Sambaar along with Toasts and Omelettes, we walked through a dense Shola forest while walking towards the Toda village, Bikapathimand from the nearest Bus stop, Koranoor. These Shola forests are the remaining ‘rainforests’ which are an excellent nucleus for a tribal village as they are the source of clear water even in the lean season. It was amazing to see what we always studied in textbooks but saw for ourselves that Forests are important for the conservation and generation of water sources. On the way to the village we saw the Giant Malabar squirrel, which is an endemic species found in the Nilgiris and is the biggest squirrel of Asia.
We walked uptil a point christened, the ‘Bear Hill’ at an altitude of approximately 6120 ft. above m.s.l. From here we generated an interesting race to the two hills called the Bison and Tiger Hill which was a competitive event between two teams led by Nainika and Tushar of which Tushar’s team won. At first both of the teams were having neck to neck competition but the unfamiliar route guided one of the groups to take a de-tour which cost them dearly. One of the groups also encountered a spotted deer ‘sambhar’ on their way trekking up the hill!
After these three hours of trekking we finally reached the Toda village where we were served amazing Tea. Surprisingly many of the Tribals knew ‘English’ thus communication was made a lot easier. We met Ms. Sangeeta whose fluent English and welcoming character really made us feel warm. The art of stitching and embroidery was greatly focused on and many items like shawls, mufflers and pouches were purchased by us all. Knowing about their lifestyle truly fulfilled our aim and reviewed our existing prejudices thoughts about tribes.
In all it was a great experience where we learnt a lot about yet another PTG Primitive Tribal Group of the Nilgiris, the Todas even as we had a brush with the Giant Malabar Squirrel and the Sambhar deer.
We walked uptil a point christened, the ‘Bear Hill’ at an altitude of approximately 6120 ft. above m.s.l. From here we generated an interesting race to the two hills called the Bison and Tiger Hill which was a competitive event between two teams led by Nainika and Tushar of which Tushar’s team won. At first both of the teams were having neck to neck competition but the unfamiliar route guided one of the groups to take a de-tour which cost them dearly. One of the groups also encountered a spotted deer ‘sambhar’ on their way trekking up the hill!
After these three hours of trekking we finally reached the Toda village where we were served amazing Tea. Surprisingly many of the Tribals knew ‘English’ thus communication was made a lot easier. We met Ms. Sangeeta whose fluent English and welcoming character really made us feel warm. The art of stitching and embroidery was greatly focused on and many items like shawls, mufflers and pouches were purchased by us all. Knowing about their lifestyle truly fulfilled our aim and reviewed our existing prejudices thoughts about tribes.
In all it was a great experience where we learnt a lot about yet another PTG Primitive Tribal Group of the Nilgiris, the Todas even as we had a brush with the Giant Malabar Squirrel and the Sambhar deer.