DHARMAPURI: A team of trekkers from the ‘Trek Tamil Nadu’ initiative, at the behest of the tourism development office in Dharmapuri, surveyed the trails around Vathalmalai to look into potential adventure tourism aspects, and trekking routes.
For the past three years, the tourism department in Dharmapuri has been taking steps to improve aspects of adventure tourism in Vathalmalai hamlet, and a resting zone was also constructed for Rs 2.23 crore.
Speaking to TNIE, Assistant Tourism Officer A Kadiresan said, "For the past few years, we have been working on various initiatives to improve tourism by introducing it at adventure zones. As part of this venture, initiatives are in place to set up camping and trekking trails. Recently a team from ‘Trek Tamil Nadu’, a joint venture of the Tamil Nadu forest department and Tamil Nadu Wilderness Experiences Corporation conducted a survey. They followed the existing trails used by the locals and surveyed the hill hamlet for a potential trekking trails."
Commenting on the initiative, R Kaliappan of Palsilambu said, "We welcome the tourism department's keen interest in developing tourism here. Our hills are not very steep or hard to move on. There are dozens of hills here, and we have scoured these hills and established many routes for grazing goats. We are willing to aid the tourism department uncover more trails." he said.