Endangered Yercaud

                                    Yercaud to me was just a gloomy hill station situated near Salem in the lap of Shevaroyan Ranges, when I visited it nearly 10 years ago.

But when I visited this time in Nov 06 I was taken aback by the " Developments" taking place there. My intention is not at what usually happens to any hill station with the advent of commercialization and tourism, like it has in Ooty and Kodaikanal, but the " Plundering"  taking place courtesy the Mining Industry .

   As we reached Salem and took a left towards Yercaud, about 5 Kms from the foot of the Ghat road, I chanced to see a signboard indicating certain Mining Company, which was only 8 Kms away. I was shocked !!!. I thought how come a Mining activity could take place in the vincity of Yercaud as it falls under the forest dept, but little did I know that I was in for a horrible shock later , as what I saw was just the tip of an iceberg .

As we climbed higher and higher on the ghat road one could see the extent of damage delted by the miming company as they covered a huge expanse of land where surface mining was in full swing. One could also clearly see that one small hill adjacent to the ranges had been completely " eaten " away by the miners.

   After reaching Yercaud I set out to the famous Shevaroyan Temple ( The diety of the Shevaroyan ranges ) around 15 kms from the lake. I had very fond memories of this temple as the last time I visited this place it was full of greenery. But this time my old memories had to remain a memory because the mining activity was carried out as close as 50ft away from the temple as well.

 The road to the temple was really bad as it bore the burnt of the loaded trucks, which carried tons of ore from all around. We met a truck driver and from him came to know that the ore was Bauxite.

The peaceful (??) atmosphere was disturbed by a bang !!...upon looking around we could see a thick smoke raising from the thick forest and it was not difficult to guess what it was....Yes it was the sound of Dynamite used to break the red rocks.

     All these  events slowly dawned upon us that this mining activity will slowly but surely engulf the whole of the Shevroyan ranges and leave with nothing but miles and miles of plain barren land in the near future, if the forest authorities keep their eyes shut as they are doing so now.

     Yercaud ,the gloomy hill station ,once upon a time is now on the verge of Extinction if I can put it so .Some drastic steps have to be taken up by environmentalist and importantly by the people of Salem and Yercaud if they have to save themselves and their home and of course not to forget the home of their diety Shevaroyan.

For pics visit http://anilsuhas.fotopic.net