Ecoscape is a tourist place situated in the Nilgiris district, a mountain/hill range that connects 3 states. It was here where our study tour as a whole group would occur together for the next few days. A time of leisure, reflecting on our placements, and our time in india. Ecoscape is situated deep into the forest and the hills of tea gardens, which is owned by the Adivasi people. Similarly to the Aboriginals, the Adivasi people are tribal people who lived in the hills and land. However, people from other regions came in and not knowing their rights (or even about rights for that matter) they had their land taken away by rich people and businesses. So ACCORD (the NGO that my two colleagues worked at) is all about social justice for the tribal people - to get them their rights. Ecoscape is situated on 140acres owned by the Adivasi people, which Accord helped them attain. thats the connection.
We traversed down the hills to get to ecoscape, just being in awe of the surroundings. Tea garden after tea garden, greenery after greenery. It was so different to the india i knew for the past 2 1/2months. We kept walking down and saw women plucking leaves and placing them in oversized bags, placing them on their head and then walking them up the hill. And the bags are heavy….i found a half filled one and lifted it and it was not light! Makes you think twice about the effort it goes into making the tea that i drink.
We kept trekking down the hill until we finally made our destination, a little hidden resort in the hills. it was such a good sight. We were treated to chai and snacks, shown our rooms and just chilled in the afternoon. we were told that wild elephants had been spotted not far from us. This was a good thing but also a bad thing. Good in that sweet, we get a chance to see wild elephants, but bad because they can be quite aggressive if anything gets in their pathway and have been known to come to Ecoscape. We grabbed our gear and went on an elephant hunt. But in fact, it was us being hunted - hunted by those damn leeches! These blood sucking parasites would cling to your shoes, your socks and work their way onto your skin. they were the hardest thing to pull off. and can leave a nasty sting and draw blood if left on too long - but thats even if u notice as they inject some numbing poison into you. the trick to getting rid of them is (of course salt, but if u dont have salt....) pulling them off, and rolling them in a ball (As you would do with snot :) ) and then just flicking it….lucky ive had a lot of practice with that…jks.
We couldnt find the elephants but we found a stream, and were told that the elephants had crossed the stream onto the otherside. So we walked back to our accommodation with the sounds of elephants regularly trumpeting in the background. my my my what a sound. It was nightfall and we had dinner and played some Carrom - that game where you flick the discs into the hole. Luckily ive had some good practice with the boys here at SEDS. At night, we starred into the darkness of the Nilgiris. Fireflies would light up the night, with the sound of elephants, cicadas and frogs at night. What a sight, what a sound. The ambience of the atmosphere was spectacular.
It was the next morning and i woke up early to see if i could see any elephants (We were told that dusk and dawn is when elephants do alot of walking). I went up to the kitchen where all the staff were and one guy quickly found me and said he saw elephants. So Shateesh and i went looking for elephants. But we couldnt find any. Breakfast was still being prepped and another staff member, ramesh, said to lets go find elephants so Megan and i were keen as a bean. we followed him through the jungle…….And there we saw it. Elephants. Wild Indian Elephants. we counted 11 in this herd. it was an amazing sight - elephants just grazing 40-50m away from us. We grabbed the rest of the group, and we all just watched silently. 20-30mins we were just about to leave when we saw them mating, or as our supervisor put it ‘sexing’. bahaha. One staff member chuckled as he said ‘mystery solved’ as to why the elephants were trumpetting so much yesterday afternoon and evening.
later on in the afternoon, some of us made a trek which would take us across the border into the next state of Kerala. It was pouring down rain but the good thing about the hills is that the clouds move so quickly so the weather can change instantly. We started walking and every so often trying to get the leeches off of our shoes. i had a pesky one climb all the way up to the inside of my pants and onto the back of my thigh. Sneaky things. We trekked for a few kms crossing small waterfalls and being immersed in the clouds as they would roll past us. And then we made it to an abandoned house. This house provided the best spot to look at the nilgiris and to see all the trees in the surrounding hills. clouds would be strewn all across the mountain top. such a pretty and awesome sight! i’ve never experienced anything like it. It was getting dark so we headed back but we noticed the trail of destruction some elephants had caused along the way. trees would be ripped and branches pulled down just to get some fruit off a tree. its pretty funny actually.
That night we played a game of charades after dinner, but we had to end the game early and were told to go to bed, as sounds were heard in the dark. The staff though it couldve been elephants so he locked us in the safest place, our rooms.
Our time had come to an end at Ecoscape the next morning as we packed our stuff and headed back to Gudalur, where Accord is. We stayed one more night at Gudalur and allowed our friends to say goodbye to their mates on their placement. its always such a big thing, to have time to say goodbye. We invest so much time and efforts with the people we meet at our placements that we need to make time to say goodbye to them. thats something i’ve found out recently.
We had the opportunity to have breakfast with Stan and Marie, the founders of ACCORD. again much like the founders of my placement at SEDS, and another placement called TIMBAKTU, there’s this vision, this desire, this belief, or this injustice that just fuels them to give up everything, to sacrifice and to just do it, even if people think they are crazy.
So we hopped into the minibus (The one that broke down in bangalore…it got fixed and he drove up to meet us during the week), and we headed back to bangalore…..yet the bad run of vehicles breaking down didnt stop there. We were driving through the national forest and as you would have guessed, the vehicle broke down again. This is india. iT broke down where the signs said dont hop out because there are tigers around. haha but we had to, to try and fix the car. But as i have said before, things just always work out….there was a bus that was passing by and it was headed to bangalore. So we took a bus home :) and minimal people were on it, so we could stretch out and sleep we headed home to bangalore.
We’ve now been in bangalore for a week. How we started the indian trip is how we’ve ending it. 7 of us in one house, having community over meal times, getting to know each other, getting to know the city and just doing assignments etc. Yet, the city has not become overwhelming anymore. infact, i walk the streets and i feel like i’ve been here for a longtime like i’ve live here or something like that. we go out and have coffee and we can barter with autorickshaw drivers now. We go on walks at night and have even checked out the night scene/life of bangalore. And thats where you see the other side, the other culture of bangalore. I feel like i’ve experienced, seen and tasted so much of india, yet theres still so more to see and do.
