DIARY OF A PLANTER VI. To the Nilgiris - Korakundah at 7,500'

摘要

Korakundah was a new estate where there was no mature tea at all, in fact there were no plantings of more than three years of age. There was a large block of land extending to some 4,000 acres I recollect. It was situated at about 7,500' above sea level on the South Western quarter of the Nilgiri plateau, and some 30 to 35 miles along winding lanes from Ootacamund, Wellington and Coonoor. Access was through Brooke Bond's Thiashola Estate and so was well on the far side of the Kundah River and Kilkundah Village. The land was very reminiscent of the Scottish Lowlands. There was a deep acid soil over laterite with rough grass, the occasional wild rhododendron (R.Arboreum with pink to dark red flowers), and spreads of the septennial strobilanthes. Thisopen country merged into small thickets, copses and woods in the sheltered hollows-these 'sholas' were protected, and quite rightly so. They were not to be felled or planted with exotics, but essential roads and paths could be cut through them. These sholas were a haven for wild life; snipe and woodcock came in from Siberia over the winter months, there were a lot of sambhur, a few barking deer and the occasional visiting tiger and panther.