Fine Dining

by V.R. Srikanth

Silver Saddle is located around 57 kms from Coonoor and Ooty and at an elevation of around 6,250ft msl. It is also on the very south western edge of the Nilgiris as the range hooks eastward towards Kinnakorai village which lies 2.5 kms away.

Shola forest (all pix by Srikanth)

To reach the Saddle, one has to pass through some of the most dense shola or endemic forests that have been around for nearly 180mn years since the split of Gondwanaland. The forests are composed of native trees and ferns and dense undergrowth are so thick that, one can barely see a couple of feet inside them and they are virtually impenetrable. I hope the photos accompanying the story do the area justice.

I purchased the property that spans both the sides of the Saddle over a decade ago. It was in part an abandoned tea garden but the owners had thrown in the towel many decades ago, resulting in the area being overrun by everything neath the soil.

Off SilverSaddle

Silver Saddle

The area, as it is ringed by the celebrated neela kurunji plants (a species that flowers once in 14 years) and endemic Shola forests sustains all the wildlife that there is in this biosphere. Elephants do come up to the Saddle from the lower reaches, to escape the summer heat or endless harassment from insects or as in this case even for a romantic weekend.

The early settlers here gave up on the area and abandoned it due to the harsh climatic conditions because of the fierce winds, known to exceed over 120 kms per hour, quite frequently causing untold damage and creating almost inhospitable living conditions from time to time, especially during both the south west and north east monsoons.

Bewitched by the beauty of the land, my wife Sashi and I decided to brave all this and decided to take on all that the Saddle had to throw at us. As we were both over fifty, we were readily labelled as insane. It called for a real pioneering effort starting with clearing the area, making rivetments, terraces, creating water storage tanks, in other words just about doing everything that was needed to make a living here.

Finally we did plant herbs like rosemary, thyme and oregano and seasonal vegetables. We maintained very little of the restored tea as labour was a challenge and there were many abandoned tea fields in the area where minimal maintenance was being done and only the leaf was being plucked, that too, infrequently.

Neela Kurunji or Strobilanthes Kunthiana at Silver Saddle

We did grow some exotic veggies, like iceberg lettuce, zucchini, rocket, kale, etc., for our table and the Ooty market. The Elephants from the valley did visit the area around our home and in the tea fields below but stayed away from our herb and vegetable fields due to some inexplicable reason.

After a season of fierce winds that certainly dried up the moisture on all plants instantly, we did have some settled conditions finally and we're looking forward to a sizeable harvest from our lower fields.

My wife and I in the meantime spotted a romantic pair of elephants in the area around the tea bushes and grassy mountain slopes about half a kilometer from our fields. We kept observing this pair comprising of one tusker, as they intertwined their trunks periodically and kept disappearing into and re - emerging from the sholas rather frequently. We were completely enthralled by the foreplay of the pair.

Hard economics came back to haunt us over the arranging of a shipment of nearly half a ton of zucchini to the Ooty market the next day which would hopefully result in some money coming in for payment of a few weeks' wages in those harsh times. Instructions were issued for an early morning harvest, the next day.

Which never happened. The romantic pair did dine out and laid waste to everything. A tigress and a cub ensured that we had to abandon the area for over a year subsequently. There is never a dull moment at the Saddle.

Meet the writer: V.R.Srikanth

I am a resident of the Nilgiris. I am a retired Corporate Management Professional having done two brief stint as a planter, nearly thirty years apart, mainly in Coffee. I live on my estate growing timber, organic herbs and vegetables. 

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