Published in Dwarka Express on 3.6.23
The schools are reopening as well as the Ooty flower show is over on 23rd May itself. Ooty is supposed to breathe easy, but my perception was wrong. The crowd for the annual flower show at Ooty is unprecedented with thousands of cars entering the city for a few kilometers in the ghat road were seen queued up, patiently waiting long hours and inching ahead. This ‘procession’ was going on even after a week. Otherwise also, the tourists inflex often exceed tolerance limits during summer holidays. Whoever visits Botanical Garden or Boat house will have to wait in long queues. It is the same case in Doddabetta peak or Dolphin nose in Ooty. The local authorities are struggling to regulate the traffic on the one hand and clear the trash generated due to heavy rush.
Coming to the Flower Show at Botanical Garden, it’s really a worth seeing annual event with its 125th edition of the flower show which started on 19th May 2023 and ended on 23rd May 2023. About 5.5 lac flower plants in addition to 35000 potted plants were lined up. For a serious botanist, who wants to study the varieties, one day is not enough. There were exotic species too with almost every country was represented. Its quite natural for anyone to think that the mad rush would be over on the last date of the show. But when I visited the Botanical Garden on 30th May 23, my speculation that I can see the flowers in a relaxed manner proved wrong. The rush didn’t come down. More than flowers what fascinated me was the huge count of sparrows inside the garden and elsewhere in the town. This gave the bird lovers a solace that there is still hope for the sparrow race. At least I might have clicked 1000 snaps. Forgetting the purpose of my visit, I was excited watching a male sparrow feeding the juvenile.
When I reached the boat house for a boat ride, it is a huge waiting. I pretty well knew that the lake water is contaminated and is nothing more than a drainage. But the irrational tourists will never bother all these. Its sure that the Ooty lake is not what it was 50 years ago. The locals want revenue and they can only make hay while the sun shines, literally. The tourism Industry cannot give up their greed to fill up their cash boxes. A few environmentalists lament out of frustration as they feel that the city is losing its charm as a hill station. I was shocked to see a well-built Nilgiri gaur (bison), just on the road. I remember peeping into Sholas 30 years back to have the darshan of bison. They are just available like stray cows now. We need to give a second thought to the annual ritual of parading the flowers just to attract tourists to Ooty.
Dr V Selvarajan 