GLENLORNA, A TEA ESTATE IN COORG

I have always enjoyed my geography classes during school. And drawing, shading and marking maps has always been a personal favourite. Perhaps that is why I am addicted to adult colouring books right now. But that is an aside.

Everytime I think of the Western Ghats, I remember my class when we used to mark and colour the western stretch of India on the map, all the way from the tip of Tamil Nadu to Kerala and right up to Goa. And then there was the Eastern Ghats as well. I love the Western Ghats. Period. I was introduced to it as a three year old when we used to drive from Chennai to visit Sringeri and then we stayed in my grandfather’s coffee estates in Chikmagalur. And the fascination stays even today. There is an element of nostalgia every time you think of it irrespective of whether it was a road trip or a train journey. I have traversed the Western Ghats several times and it has almost become an annual pilgrimage.Some statistics from the Wikipedia – the 1600 kms long unbroken chain of mountains occupies an area of 160000 sq kms. There are about 39 individual sites that make up this World Heritage Site including reserve forests and national parks. The green cover is all encompassing. From evergreen tropical rain forests to deciduous jungles to shola forests, the dense canopy here can take you to a different world. It is not just about tiger tourism.The green cover is all encompassing. From evergreen tropical rain forests to deciduous jungles to shola forests, the dense canopy here can take you to a different world. It is not just about tiger tourism.