Plans to Protect Air, water, wilderness, Domestic and wildlife are in fact plans to protect man – Stewart Udall --On this note Kodaikanal, one of the oldest hill station and now a wildlife sanctuary, is facing a serious ecological issue. With illegal buildings, encroachments, traffic , bad roads, pollution, the HUL issue which has taken a toll on many including the micro flora and fauna of Kodaikanal Wildlife sanctuary and the worst being the poor waste management in town. It is a terrible sight to see not only dogs feeding on overflowing garbage but also domestic cattle, horses, ponies , monkeys, Wild boars, Porcupines, India Bison and even Elephants. When wild animals have easy access to food, why would they go back into the forest to fend for themselves, and even if they do need to, most of their grazing areas are encroached.  This ultimately comes down to the poor waste management.  It leads to the multiplication of dogs, which affects wildlife as well as the environment.  Moreover, deadly diseases like Leptospirosis, tetanus, rabies, etc. are spreading.  When stray dogs or semi- owned dogs multiply, so does the threat of rabies which can infect and be transmitted by a wide range of mammals, but dogs remain the main reservoir. 

Like many Indian cities, Kodaikanal has a growing population of street dogs. However Kodai is not a typical city.  The natural beauty and temperate climate continue to attract new residents, seasonal residents, and short-term tourists, both domestic and foreign. This rapid population growth has put pressure on municipal infrastructure, affecting traffic and sanitary facilities, including the management of food waste. The overabundance of street dogs has resulted in an increasingly competitive environment for these animals, which in turn leads to abandoned puppies, underfed adult dogs, conflict between dogs, and sometimes aggression towards humans, wildlife which may result because of a threat of rabies.  Addressing dog overpopulation in a humane solution and adopting the goal of hundred per cent rabies vaccination coverage, hand in hand with a plan for managing garbage and reducing street litter, will result in a safer, healthier environment for all Kodai citizens and the tourists who visit Kodaikanal. The year 2017-2018 had Kodaikanal Society for protection & Care for Animal (KSPCA ) do Animal birth control and Anti – Rabies vaccinations for over 501 dogs in Kodaikanal town alone and a Mass Anti -rabies vaccinations from then until now for over 3000 dogs in the entire hills with collaboration with Ngos like HSI India were able to achieve such targets  so Kodaikanal and the Kodaikanal Wildlife Sanctuary would be in the WHO ( World Health Organization) list for Rabies Free zones  in India  by 2030. Rabies is a deadly virus and has been recognized for over 4000 years, and is fully preventable. Several measures can be conducted to prevent rabies. And only by educating people on the causes, prevention this can happen. Medical colleges need to provide interns with sufficient training and exposure to animal bite management. School curriculums should include developing rabies awareness among students. Rabies should be declared a notifiable disease and incorporated into a “one health programme” in a coordinated manner at all levels. Which mean all Departments must work together to bring this to light as public health issue. Government campaigns must have “Rabies Free India”.

 Similarly in collaboration with WVS India mass equine medical camps are conducted twice a year to give tetanus and deworming for working and neglected equines so as to avoid spread of zoonotic diseases through them or to them. Tetanus bacterium is a normal inhabitant of the gastrointestinal tract of many animals (Especially Equines) and has worldwide distribution. Once on the ground it forms spores and lives for years. Therefore areas adjoining to wildlife must get vaccination for tetanus to prevent contamination.

Our year happily made up for the disastrous lack of the previous  two years with rains arriving in the Palni Hills—all despite dire warnings of further drought. Though we were saved by the grace of Nature with unexpected precipitation, the aquifers were refreshed, and the Kodai Lake as of writing not only full but overflowing, in 2017-2018 the rain has been plenty but the patterns have been abnormal. The South-West monsoon started early in March and April, and then pulled up some rain in June and July. Likewise the North-East monsoon started in August and fed us into September trickling out in October with six days in November and only a few days into December. 

Tourist traffic for Common Era New Year’s Day weekend, Tamil Pongal and Malayalam Onam created a noxious atmosphere from uncontrolled diesel fumes in the Hills all due to inversion. Reports from the Nilgiris echoed the same complaint. In the high altitude Himalaya the result of inversion is called the ‘winterline’. It looks beautiful at sunset, created from cook fires and dust from the plains. 

What is inversion? Warm air rises and cool air falls in a plane parallel to the earth. Inversion is the meteorological phenomenon in windless winter conditions where a cooled atmosphere from above forces down the warmer air that normally rises from the land heated by the sun. This evenpressing down of the warm air mixed with exhaust fumes and diesel particulates creates a visible slab-like brownish-purple cloud extending off in all directions suspended in the lower sky. It too might appear beautiful for someone who did not know what it represented. Heading down to Vilpatti village outside Kodai town one can see this “brown cloud” as a thick blanket or layer of pollution visible off towards the East over the range. In the plains this brown cloud is not quite so noticeable as the level of inversion does not descend down much below a mile high (approx 2000m). But in high altitudes like the Palani Hills, Nilgiris and montane Kerala this modern phenomenon of exhaust fumes mixed with natural dust results in an asphyxiating atmosphere for residents and tourists alike, not to mention the wildlife with which we share these beautiful mountains. And without fail, one went into Kodaikanal town only to return with eyes stinging from the vehicular pollution in the air. 

The environment where we live and the ecosystem of which we are a part, are too susceptible that their finite resources cannot be over-exploited . Preservation, protection and improvement of the environment for present and future generations is the solemn duty of every citizen.[1]

Not least for the air we breathe! Once upon a time, more than a hundred years ago now, machine driven transportation was going to solve the serious problem of horse-dung in the streets of towns and cities, that unhygienic nuisance! When the steam engine dawned this was to clear up the filth and provide clean transportation and sources of energy. Indeed the steam driven car was very powerful. Plus, there were electric cars aplenty in the early days of automotive transport. Petrol-driven cars were a minority. Somehow the petrol-driven engine became the standard and we are living with the consequences all around the world today. 

With our collective human intelligence we ought to have lobbied for alternatives long before today. Unfortunately, the need of industry to drag on making profits out of destructive practices—while ignoring the health of the Planet—continues.

In the Anthropocene Era humans have become “a force of Nature” according to Maslin and Lewis in their book, The Human Planet, under what is now being called ‘consumer capitalism’. Anyway, even if the internal combustion machine is one of the ‘Seven Blunders of the Modern World’ and we humans are working on different modes of cleaner, cleverer transportation, with the equipment that we have we can make improvements. Given the present situation one of the highly obvious culprits of this attack on the mountain air was un-tuned diesel engines in lorry, van and SUV servicing Kodaikanal. These unturned engines belch out black smoke willy-nilly as they ascend the gradients. PHCC has been talking to the authorities to enact more stringent measures of control on vehicles that simply ignore the health of their own engines and produce particulates that spoil the air of the hills for everyone.

Palni Hills Conservation Council is grateful to the skies for the 33^rd year rains that restored some stressed-out parts of the local ecology, with wild animals getting better forage and building their strength. Though the rains are askew in timing, small scale farmers have adjusted to Nature that is herself attempting to adjust to our global impact on her rhythms. 

Coming to the rivers lakes and streams, which is being polluted, encroached upon. Not only has the sewage treatment planted of various big resorts and hotels that let their effluent into the river. The HUL scam has been a big effect on the pambar stream affecting even the micro flora and fauna of the wildlife sanctuary. Wild and domestic healthy but dying of unknown reasons , sholas that are thriving to grow amongst such air , water and earth pollution. But amidst all this we see the beautiful Kurinji blooming (Strawbulanthus Kunthiana) giving the citizens of Kodaikanal a big hope that change is inevitable and Kodaikanal has beautiful days ahead and we can still restore what we have lost.

With the encroachments, waste management crisis. The issues of wildlife entering town and villages increased creating more Human –wildlife conflicts. Like said earlier its easily accessible food available unlike the forests where they have to fend for themselves. Indian Bisons , boars , monkeys and our ever Gentle Giants Elephants. Can this be avoided and yes forest department are taking every measure along with the local bodies to avoid conflicts and accidents to a certain extent. Usually wild move around through areas where people live not because they want to and create destruction, only because they have no choice as their paths have either disappeared due to natural circumstances or due to human encroachments and interference. Only way to look past these issues is to adapt to the idea of co-existence or simply take measures to give back their right of way. We have beautiful laws in our country to protect our fauna and flora and it can only happen if they are implemented and offenders are punished for disturbing our eco-system.

There is a famous saying in the Jungle book movie ““The elephants created this jungle. Where they made furrows with their tusks the rivers ran. Where they blew their trunks the leaves fell. They made all that belongs: the mountains, the trees, the birds in the trees. But they did not make you.” 

“According to the Law of the Jungle, man has no place in the jungle. Humans are not of the jungle, they do not belong in that place. A fact which is made starkly visible - Humans do not belong in the jungle, since they can harm it. For the jungle, man is dangerous: he has tricks and fire.”

We must enjoy the nature , the beauty of our wildlife ( fauna flora) but must make sure we do not disturb and interfere in its natural flow and laws.

Kodaikanal International School, KSPCA , PHCC, SMILE ,ROTARY ,LIONS and various other Ngos groups under the banner “ Nam Kodai “ “Our Kodai” work hard to ensure and help support the departments in waste management process in Kodaikanal town. It’s a slow work in progress but will be effective soon in years to come; after which Kodaikanal will just not be called “princess of hills” but “the most beautiful princess of hills” where we learn to live and let other beings live too in harmony , peace, love and compassion.

By Janani Krishnamurthy

(A veiw from the hillbilly )

Reference : Mark antrobus –PHCC , WHO –www.who.int , KSPCA www.kspca.in , The Law of the Jungle – the Changeable Law in Disney’s New Jungle Book (blackbirdessays), Nityanand Jayaram  ,Janani Krishnamurthy .

pic courtesy : google and other sources

  [1] M Devaraj, Chairman, Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, Pollution Control Legislations, Chennai: 1999