Saturday, February 09, 2019

Check Post - 2

Check post is a series I have started (click here for post 1) where I would like to share moments related to check posts that I have come across during my travel. There’s a check post everywhere and these check post are important in sustaining a control over unruly esp. when it comes nature environment, wild and national defence and interest. Let it be anything, crossing a check post need consideration because skipping any working check post will land in trouble. Though we hadn’t messed up anywhere but got warned by the check post guards sometime and threat a penalty.

Just like in the previous post, where we stopped by a forest dept. check post before entering Hogenakkal and this post too is similar to the evening but here it was afternoon when we try to cross Papanasam check post to visit Karaiyar Dam in Pothigai Hills. It was in 1999, during my first time trip to Kodaikanal and Tirunelveli; we visited Courtallam on the 4th day of our travel and then went to Agathiyar Falls inPapanasam and Karaiyar Dam (which weren’t in our plan) and we had no idea about this terrain as well. It was our friend who hailed from Tirunelveli, took us around the places and guided us on the entire trip (which I think I need to write a separate post on it later) and after taking showering from the popular Coutrallam waterfalls there we pursuit to Karaiyar Dam, which is 10km uphill from Papanasam.


The forest check post at Papanasam blocked our Ambassador car, and I guess they request for a permission letter and if I remember we paid some amount per head of us for them to allow inside the Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, where the Karaiyar Dam is built across Thamirabarani River. The road was narrow and potholed at many places where our Ambassador car passed effortlessly and entirely the road was silent and far empty with couple of stops with EB quarters and some settlement. The road travels along the Thamirabarani River and we could see huge pipes taking water down to the PowerStation at the foothill. I felt a sense of quietness all over; except for the voices inside the car and it was there I spot the Nilgirilangur for first time. The water level at the dam was far down then and a row of boats were parked along the bank to take visitor (on their willingness) to the other side of the dam  to check Roja Falls – named after the popular film Roja where  it was shot.

The view that I got from the dam is etched still on my mind. I rarely had a photo on it where I really need to dig out from the old photos collection. I was so interested taking the boat ride there, despite the ankle sprain I got on Kodaikanal; we were in lack of time as we need to head east to visit Tiruchendor before the end of the day. The picture of Nilgiri langur (above) was shot from the wilderness of Nilgiris during my visit in 2017.  

6 comments:

carol l mckenna said...

Fascinating post about the check points and neat nature shot!

Happy Day to you,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)

eileeninmd said...

Hello, wonderful memories of your travel. The Tiger preserve sounds like an awesome place to visit. Neat sighting of the primate. Thank you so much for linking up your post. Happy Saturday, enjoy your day and weekend. PS, thanks for visiting my blog and for leaving a comment.

Bill said...

Nice read Jeevan. I like your photo of the Nilgiri langur. I have never seen one until now. Thanks so much for sharing and have a wonderful day.

Nancy Chan said...

You have got a surprise sighting of the Nilgiri langur which I have never seen before. Happy new week!

Karen Lakis said...

That sounds like a fascinating nature preserve. I've never seen an animal like the one in your photo - what a fun find. Your story about the check post is very interesting!

Lady Fi said...

Nice shot and memories.