Coimbatore's Melmudi hill temple sees a rush of trekkers
COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore forest department has only permitted the residents of Ravuthakollanur village to visit the Melmudi Sri Aranganathar temple which is located atop a hill in the Western Ghats, near Thadagam Valley, on Saturdays.
However, as there are no restrictions, people, especially youth across Coimbatore and neighbouring districts, visit the temple for an adventure trek. Since it is the Tamil month of Puratasi, more devotees have been visiting the temple after seeing social media posts. However, devotees who are visiting the temple often throw garbage inside the forest.
Unlike Velliyangiri Hill, there are no forest department personnel to monitor the crowd and prevent them from taking plastic and other materials. As Thadagam Valley is a main elephant corridor and there have been movements of leopards and other wild animals, officials should restrict timings and start frisking devotees.
Environmentalists demand that a checkpost should be set up at number 24, Veerapandi, and devotees should be allowed only during a particular time since the other route to reach Melmudi from Palamalai is being monitored by Periayanaickenpalayam forest range.
“It will take between up to four hours to reach Melmudi temple from the foothills. Devotees not only visit the temple at different times, they also trek a further 45 minutes to reach Lambton’s Peak, which is the highest in Coimbatore, and to take pictures. They often throw plastic covers inside the forest and spoil its beauty,” said an environmentalist.
Famous environmentalist and Osai founder K Kalidass said, “Considering existing vacancies in the forest department, officials should engage college students as volunteers to curtail crowds. They should also start a website exclusively to register devotees visiting Melmudi temple and only a particular number of devotees should be allowed.
The issue is also prevalent at Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR).” He further requested officials to visit the hilltop once a week to ensure there are no temporary structures coming up as it would disturb the environment.
However, sources in the Coimbatore forest range said that they are allowing devotees only on Saturdays, after thorough checking. “We have been instructing them to return to the foothills before 4 pm, and currently we have no plan to set up a checkpost at 24 Veerapandi village as we do not have permission from the Chief Wildlife Warden,” they added.