THE SHOLA WARRIOR'S PATH

Over the past 31 years, retired professor Dr Johnykutty J. Ozhukayil has been trying hard to convince people in Kerala's picturesque hill district Idukki to become more "conscious of nature".

- Jeemon Jacob

He has also led by example, setting up a nature park, Hill 7, on 30 acres of land in Mankuttimedu near Nedumkandam to show that natural shola forests can be regenerated.

Found only in tropical high-altitude (1,500 metres-plus) regions, the sholas are a combination of montane evergreen forests and grasslands that are peculiar to the southern part of the Western Ghats. Mankuttimedu sits about 1,100 metres above sea level and is an entry point to the mountains. Surrounded by seven misty hills, it was once an oasis of shola grasslands. But the area has undergone massive changes, with migrant farmers from the lowlands encroaching on forest land and "clearing the brush" as it were, often with political support.

"It's a pathetic situation. To think that this could happen in highly literate Kerala...in some four decades, we have transformed the place into a wasteland," says Dr Sajeed A., additional director at the Regional Cancer Centre, Thiruvananthapuram and an enthusiastic naturalist. "It's alright to support tourism and plantations, but the shola lands have disappeared altogether, and nobody bothered to protest. I used to come here once a month with my family, but it's not the same anymore," he says wistfully.