There's a certain romance in these dry thorn forests.
Masinagudi reminds me of Malgudi, with its quaint old Mysore charm and the Kannada-laced Tamil spoken by its taxi-men. It is a small dusty town on The Nilgiris border with Karnataka. Small hotels and eateries have come up to cater to tourists who come to the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve.
I'm travelling with British Council's International Climate Champions, an eclectic bunch of youngsters trying to stop climate change.
Our first stop: Indian Institute of Science Research Station, where we meet environment researchers Geetha Ramaswami and Rutuja Chitra- Tarak, who study the dynamics of a dry forest. The Nilgiris mountains boast of four kinds of vegetation: scrub, dry deciduous, moist deciduous and semi evergreen. Masinagudi is in the scrub and dry deciduous part....
http://www.thehindu.com/mp/2010/02/08/stories/2010020850520100.htm
