Yellagiri and December!A unique Juggal-Bandi

Yelagiri is probably the most beautiful hill station in Tamil Nadu. When I first set foot in Yelagiri back in 2005, I was quite fascinated, but tourism has not developed even being so close to Chennai. It has incredibly beautiful viewpoint at the every corner of the hill; the city of Vellore looks very beautiful from a distance, especially at night. At the end of point of Yelagiri, there is a very beautiful waterfall called Jalagamaparai waterfall, the mind gets freshened after seeing the waterfall. The sight of seeing water streaming down on rock cheers you up. Apart from it there are Yelagiri Lake, Nilbhur Lake, Murugan Temple, Punganur Lake and Swamimalai Hills I still get thrilled to this day by just having the thought of witnessing the sunset from Swamimalai hills.

So much for all the information, first time I came here for three days. I have a habit of walking, it was the month of December, and the cool breeze was blowing all over the place. The distant hills were arranged like waves in the blue sky. On the second day I was fortunate enough to discover Barleria and that too in the month of December, those wild flowers bloom in Bengal around this time, but I was quite surprised to see them there in December. Nandakumar, a local man who worked as a tour guide at Tamil Nadu tourism (under contract), said that in the local language it was called “December Pu” and in Andhra Pradesh, girls from the Chenchu tribe wore garlands made out of Barleria on their heads in the afternoon. In Anantagari Barleria is yellow in colour. Although I did not see the yellow variety in Bengal, and I had been to Anantagiri in early October so I did not see those, probably because it was not a blooming season. After hearing Nanda Kumar’s words I realised that there are so many varieties in the blooming of a flower in this country. Maybe I didn’t have enough time to explore India, maybe I will never be able to.

Barrelia is also used as a diuretic in countries like Thailand and the Philippines.
There is the option for paragliding in Yelagiri during the season. But it is better to tell the hotel in advance because many tourists come from Chennai to paraglide in winter.

Any Train from Howrah to Chennai.
4 hours from Chennai, 2 hours from Vellore, 4 hours from Pondicherry, but due to lack of publicity, Yelagiri is still a place that is yet to be explored by many tourists.

-Sanjay Goswami-