Forest department has no right to restrict pilgrims to Agasthyar Koodam.
News: Forest department to restrict off-season trek to Agastyakoodam.Kerala Forest Department is planning to restrict the entry of off-season tourists to Agastyakoodam to not more than 50 people at one go and that too, only for two or three days a week.
TNN | May 3, 2012, 06.29AM IST
Firstly, it is not Agasthyakoodam but ‘Agasthyar Koodam’, the ‘r’ usually used to denote respect for a name in the South Indian dialects. The Kerala Forest Department has no right to restrict entry of visitors to Agasthyakoodam, the Pilgrims’ Peak in the Southern Sahyadri Ranges. They shall not restrict access to people, whether it is season or off-season. They are bound to provide visitors resting, eating and staying facilities for which they can consider revising the rates of fees for admission. One should visit this place regularly and learn to respect the peacefulness, cleanliness and loftiness of our nature. We know that many visitors from these trips return awed and inspired by nature’s care and majesty. It is people’s presence in sacred places like these that guarantees the preservation and continuance of delicately balanced ecological structures. It is people’s interference that has successfully prevented many nature’s preserves from being over-exploited by timber and mining industries. The Forest Department cannot be taken into confidence in this matter. A few years back, we flagged off an adventure trip by a Quilon-based Nature and Adventure Club which took the route from Shankhily- Vencollah to Ponmudi and the entire route was video graphed. A few years after, when another such trip was undertaken, the new videos showed that many huge trees seen standing on the wayside in the first video graph were not to be seen there in the second. They were bulldozed and removed in Lorries which could not have been undertaken without the help of Forest Department Officials. Had people not travelled in this route and filmed whatever was there on the way two times, nothing would have come out. The same situation applies to Agasthyar Koodam also. The Department restricts photographing the area, for fear of over exposure to the rare and rich plant life there. Why does the Department prohibit photography? What have them to hide from people and from the world? It is the vigil of ordinary people that prevents major looting of tree wood and medicinal plants in rare Biodiversity Hotspots. The dormitory in question in Agasthyar Koodam has been left in ruins for so many years by the Forest Department. Its condition is antihuman. Regarding the accumulation of discarded plastic in this route, it should be noted that practically no plastic waste is generated during the proper pilgrimage season when hundreds of visitors travel the route. It is because, as against in the past, the Department now provides food including idli, dosai, poori, chappathi and porridge at three places, i.e. at Bonakkadu, Athirumala and one place in between, so that pilgrims won’t need to transport food and plastic to carry them in. Therefore now there is no question of cooking food on the way with firewood, resulting in forest fires. The Department also provides night shelters two times on the way to and fro, thereby eliminating the need for making fires during night to escape from cold.
The food given to Agasthyar Koodam pilgrims by Forests Department is made available through the various Eco Development Committees formed including the local Aborigines living in the nearby settlements. Everywhere in Kerala the services of these EDCs is admirable, for they generate employment for the locals who successfully prevent local pilfering and poaching. Employing local girls as this kind of forest watchers is actually the only praisable thing the Forest Department of Kerala did recently. It is the trekkers who generate waste and destroy the forest, not the pilgrims. The pilgrims, who go each year, have learned to behave themselves, and many of them usually collect plastic waste which they bring back to authorities. The right policy to be adopted by the Forests Department is to allow visitors only during the pilgrimage season and do with allowing trekking in large groups. Agasthyar was a great saint of many divine faculties and it is believed that Sri Rama, the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, on his return journey from Lanka after defeating Ravana went to Agasthyr’s abode in this peak and begged to accept him as a student. As such, in Hindu ascetic practise, Agasthyar’s peak is forbidden to womenfolk and every person in Kerala and Tamil Nadu observes this practice. So, if the reports that many Hindu Madames going to the place after illegally obtaining permission from topmost Forest Officials is true, those persons should immediately be sent away from their chairs, even if it the Forests Minister of Kerala or the Forests Secretary. It is an unpardonable violation of ethics. The Wild Life Warden of Trivandrum complains about large scale movement within his forest area. It cannot be helped. It is a renowned Hindu Pilgrimage Peak. Can we restrict people going to Sabarimala, Malayattoor or Mecca? We can only manage people to cause the least damage. Agasthyar Koodam area is not unpopulated. Nor can we move people out like we did in the Kerala- Karnataka border reserves. This place has numerous settlements of aborigines. They live even up to Kunnattherri, the very heart of this silent land. The greatest thrill and reverence to Agasthyar Muni is climbing this peak from the Eastern side from the Tamil Nadu part which is very risky. So the desiring devotees wear a saffron dhoti and climb the peak from the eastern side, posing as a Hindu saint. The local aborigines, or Adivasis in the local dialect, alone dare doing this. How can and why should one prevent them from doing this act which is part of their religion? Can we dare say that people who go to sacred Hajj shall not stone the Ka Aba? What rights have us to interfere in age-old customs of religious people? We can only tolerate and prepare ourselves for meeting it. Forest Department or No Forest Department, Bio Diversity Zone or No Bio Diversity Zone, no one can prevent Agasthyar Koodam becoming a great pilgrimage centre in South India in the future.
News: Forest department to restrict off-season trek to Agastyakoodam.Kerala Forest Department is planning to restrict the entry of off-season tourists to Agastyakoodam to not more than 50 people at one go and that too, only for two or three days a week.
TNN | May 3, 2012, 06.29AM IST
Firstly, it is not Agasthyakoodam but ‘Agasthyar Koodam’, the ‘r’ usually used to denote respect for a name in the South Indian dialects. The Kerala Forest Department has no right to restrict entry of visitors to Agasthyakoodam, the Pilgrims’ Peak in the Southern Sahyadri Ranges. They shall not restrict access to people, whether it is season or off-season. They are bound to provide visitors resting, eating and staying facilities for which they can consider revising the rates of fees for admission. One should visit this place regularly and learn to respect the peacefulness, cleanliness and loftiness of our nature. We know that many visitors from these trips return awed and inspired by nature’s care and majesty. It is people’s presence in sacred places like these that guarantees the preservation and continuance of delicately balanced ecological structures. It is people’s interference that has successfully prevented many nature’s preserves from being over-exploited by timber and mining industries. The Forest Department cannot be taken into confidence in this matter. A few years back, we flagged off an adventure trip by a Quilon-based Nature and Adventure Club which took the route from Shankhily- Vencollah to Ponmudi and the entire route was video graphed. A few years after, when another such trip was undertaken, the new videos showed that many huge trees seen standing on the wayside in the first video graph were not to be seen there in the second. They were bulldozed and removed in Lorries which could not have been undertaken without the help of Forest Department Officials. Had people not travelled in this route and filmed whatever was there on the way two times, nothing would have come out. The same situation applies to Agasthyar Koodam also. The Department restricts photographing the area, for fear of over exposure to the rare and rich plant life there. Why does the Department prohibit photography? What have them to hide from people and from the world? It is the vigil of ordinary people that prevents major looting of tree wood and medicinal plants in rare Biodiversity Hotspots. The dormitory in question in Agasthyar Koodam has been left in ruins for so many years by the Forest Department. Its condition is antihuman. Regarding the accumulation of discarded plastic in this route, it should be noted that practically no plastic waste is generated during the proper pilgrimage season when hundreds of visitors travel the route. It is because, as against in the past, the Department now provides food including idli, dosai, poori, chappathi and porridge at three places, i.e. at Bonakkadu, Athirumala and one place in between, so that pilgrims won’t need to transport food and plastic to carry them in. Therefore now there is no question of cooking food on the way with firewood, resulting in forest fires. The Department also provides night shelters two times on the way to and fro, thereby eliminating the need for making fires during night to escape from cold.
The food given to Agasthyar Koodam pilgrims by Forests Department is made available through the various Eco Development Committees formed including the local Aborigines living in the nearby settlements. Everywhere in Kerala the services of these EDCs is admirable, for they generate employment for the locals who successfully prevent local pilfering and poaching. Employing local girls as this kind of forest watchers is actually the only praisable thing the Forest Department of Kerala did recently. It is the trekkers who generate waste and destroy the forest, not the pilgrims. The pilgrims, who go each year, have learned to behave themselves, and many of them usually collect plastic waste which they bring back to authorities. The right policy to be adopted by the Forests Department is to allow visitors only during the pilgrimage season and do with allowing trekking in large groups. Agasthyar was a great saint of many divine faculties and it is believed that Sri Rama, the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, on his return journey from Lanka after defeating Ravana went to Agasthyr’s abode in this peak and begged to accept him as a student. As such, in Hindu ascetic practise, Agasthyar’s peak is forbidden to womenfolk and every person in Kerala and Tamil Nadu observes this practice. So, if the reports that many Hindu Madames going to the place after illegally obtaining permission from topmost Forest Officials is true, those persons should immediately be sent away from their chairs, even if it the Forests Minister of Kerala or the Forests Secretary. It is an unpardonable violation of ethics. The Wild Life Warden of Trivandrum complains about large scale movement within his forest area. It cannot be helped. It is a renowned Hindu Pilgrimage Peak. Can we restrict people going to Sabarimala, Malayattoor or Mecca? We can only manage people to cause the least damage. Agasthyar Koodam area is not unpopulated. Nor can we move people out like we did in the Kerala- Karnataka border reserves. This place has numerous settlements of aborigines. They live even up to Kunnattherri, the very heart of this silent land. The greatest thrill and reverence to Agasthyar Muni is climbing this peak from the Eastern side from the Tamil Nadu part which is very risky. So the desiring devotees wear a saffron dhoti and climb the peak from the eastern side, posing as a Hindu saint. The local aborigines, or Adivasis in the local dialect, alone dare doing this. How can and why should one prevent them from doing this act which is part of their religion? Can we dare say that people who go to sacred Hajj shall not stone the Ka Aba? What rights have us to interfere in age-old customs of religious people? We can only tolerate and prepare ourselves for meeting it. Forest Department or No Forest Department, Bio Diversity Zone or No Bio Diversity Zone, no one can prevent Agasthyar Koodam becoming a great pilgrimage centre in South India in the future.
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