‘Mushrooming of resorts and buildings is a serious threat’

The Nilgiri Documentation Centre has urged the district administration to take advantage of the current flowering season of the iconic ‘neelakurinji’ (Strobilanthes) to identify, declare and protect the habitats of the plants which bloom once every 12 years.

In a statement, Dharmalingam Venugopal, honorary director of the NDC, said that the family of plants had been affected by habitat loss due to increased cultivation and spread of tea plantations, while the mushrooming of resorts and buildings was also a serious threat.

“The first recorded sighting of kurinji in the Nilgiris was 192 years ago to this month when Madras Governor Sir Thomas Munro paid his only visit to the hill in September 1826,” said Mr. Venugopal.

A systematic record of its blossoming since 1858 in the Nilgiris had been compiled by M.D. Cockburn, builder of modern Kotagiri, who built up a record of 100 years of the blossoming of the flower.

His grandfather, one of the earliest white settlers in the Nilgiris, also left records about it, Mr. Venugopal added.