Mr.Robert Manjolai, a man I got acquainted through the web, made this trip happen. As I have stated in my previous post, I was determined to drive past Manimuthar dam for Upper Kodayar. While I was busy searching for details regarding Manjolai and Upper Kodayar ,which falls within Kalakkad – Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) , hit upon this man, who had made avail his contact no., on the net, offering all details regarding Manjolai. He was born and brought up at Manjolai and now a legal practitioner at Madurai. Rang him up and he offered every help that he could extent. Would you believe that, it even included a free stay at his relative’s residence, inside Manimuthar tea estate. For the required permission from the Forest dept., I directly contacted the Range Officer, Ambasamudram, and he turned down my request, stating possibility of forest fire, as a reason. Using other contacts, I had a forest dept. official from Trivandrum, ring him up again, and now he conceded. However, the request for a night’s stay in the guest house, within the reserve, was declined as it wasn’t available on the day of our travel. Contacted Robert again and he connected me with Mr. Moses, a social worker at Ambasamudram, who had roots at Nalumukku, within the Tiger reserve. Moses offered night stay in a line house close to that of his brother’s, who worked in Nalumukku Tea Estate. All these were done on the previous day, of our planned date of travel. And I and Manu started off, in his Paleo 1.3 multijet, by 7 in the morning, 8-03-09. Took the same route, I have explained in detail in my earlier post, and reached Kallidakurichi, near Ambasamudram, by 12 noon. Had to wait a little for Moses to arrive. Moses confirmed the place of stay and asked us to meet one Mr.Nehru, who runs an STD booth at Nalumukku. This booth, using a WLL phone, is the loan means of electronic communication for the workers within KMTR. We packed our lunch, bought some broiler for night, and went ahead for KMTR. We didn’t have much problem at the forest check post at Manimuthar dam, as the R.O. had informed them earlier, of our visit. Had a refreshing bath at Manimuthar falls and went on slowly, negotiating the pot holes and keeping a close watch on the wild beauty of KMTR. Had a small stop on the way, to have our packed lunch, taking utmost care not to leave a single piece of plastic around. After an hours climb, the dense woods slowly transformed to beautiful tea plantations.
For more visit .. http://sshinu.blogspot.com/2009/03/manjolai-kodayar-8-03-09-mr.html
