Last Sunday we decided to do an impromtu trip on the Scorpio to visit Shivasamduram. Asia's oldest power generation station is present here. Kaveri, the boon in the months with lot of rains and the bane in the months of no rains of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu falls down majestically here in two falls Bhara Chukki and Gagana Chukki.
We packed in lunch and drove. I thought 120 km could be covered in 2 hours. Little did I realize that 1 hour from Silicon Valley of India, you were really into the Silicon. There were stretches on the state and national highways where the road just disappeared! As the others were breaking and creaking about in the second gear, I thanked the Scorpio and screamed away leaving behind more than a small pile of dust! The falls were beautiful to see. But that is that. There is really nothing else! In a place like US, even a small trickle would be celebrated and local economy would be booming. Here we are with nature, and we had abysmal facilities. No rest rooms. One really has to answer the call of the nature in the nature. From dust to dust they say, it is water to water here :).
The Gagana Chukki side (I think) is where they are making some attempts to set up a viewing point etc. The other side (Bhara Chukki) is left open. It is dangerous as hell especially if you take kids.
At the risk of offending the red brigade, India needs to capitalize on these gold mines and develop them. These can lead to local economies developing and create employment in the area. When would be a day when we would have a thrilling boat ride to the bottom of the falls like the Maid of the Mist in the Niagra? When would we have roads (forget the good roads part for now) to these treasures so that more people can access them and when would we create clean environment for everyone to enjoy Bluff without the smell?
The most exciting part of the whole trip was the tense 5 s stand-off I had with a monkey trying to mess around with our bags. I was the hero who stood up for them before my kids. Little did they know Nature was beckoning me urgently at the sight of the monkey snarling at me!
Bliss at Bluff!
1 comment:
i always thought the same...i think we have coffers of natural beauty at our disposal that we don't know to utilize (local economy, marketing, what have you) - but recent trips to several places made me change my mind. We, as a people don't have the discipline that the west does. You bring in local merchants at these beautiful places, and just as night follows day you will have to deal with the monumental amount of trash that will NOT get cleared because of these people and the visitors. It does not matter that you have trash cans. They will fill-over and the rest of the trash will lie next to it. I saw this at Abbey Falls last year. Also at Brindavan Gardens. Until we as a people develop the sense to keep nature beautiful, I'd rather leave well enough alone. Just my 2 cents.
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