Indian Antiquary Vol 61

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 186

170
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ SEPTEMBER, 1932
NOTE ON THE CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE WYNAD.
BY F. J. RICHARDS, M.A., I.C.S. (Retired.) I. Physical.
The Deccan Plateau on its S.W. margin thrusts two great bastious seaward into the plains of Malabar. The northern bastion comprises the highlands of Coorg, the southern bastion the Wynad Plateau.
This Plateau, which averages about 3,000 ft. above sea level, is hemmed in on the N.W. by the mountains of S. Coorg (rizing to 5,277 ft. in Brahmagiri), and on the S.W. by the 7,000 ft. Plateau of the Nilgiris. Its S.W. border is demarcated by a chain of three members, which rise abruptly froin the coastal plain between Tellicherry and Calicut. On the N.E. it merges into the basin of the Upper Cauvery, the homeiand of Mysore.
The Wynad is not flat, though it looks dlat when viewed from the Nilgiris. It is divided into two portions by a hiily belt that runs N. und ., and sinks to a coi in the neighbourhood of Sultan's Battery. West of this water-parting the Plateau is drained by the Kabbani, east of it by the Nugu and Moyar, ail tributaries of the Cauvery. (Fig. 1.)
The Western Wynad, which is somewhat larger in area and lower in general level than the Eastern Wynad, is divided into four quadrants by the headstreams of the Kabbani. The waters of the S.W. and S.E. quadrants, from Vayattiri and Mùppayi Nad, unite at Panamaram, and are joined by those of the W., from Periya, about four miles below this confluence. In another four miles or so northward the Kabbani, which is here split up by numerous islands, receives the waters of the N.W. from Tirunelli. The N.E. quadrant (Pulpalli) drains northwards, joining the Kabbani below the Tirunelli confluence.
The water-parting between the S.E. and S.W. quadrants, culminating in the Mani-Kunnu massif, 4,509 ft., follows roughly the line of the Panamaram-Kalpatta road, that between the S.W. and N.W. quadrants the Panamaram-Korêt road. The foriner line, continued northward, along or a little west of, the Kabbani, divides the Western Wynad into a western and an eastern half; the latter line continued eastward defines the northern and southern halves of the Western Wynad.
These halves and quadrants differ from each other in their cultural affinities ; 80 also do the Periya and Tirunelli sectors of the N.W. quadrant.
The rainfall at Manantoddy in the west averages about 106 inches annually, that at Gudalur in the east about 90 inches. Northwards towards the Mysore border the rainfall is scantier and beyond, in Heggadadevankote, it is only about 25 inches. But on the southern margin of the Wynad, which is nore exposed to the 8.W. Monsoon, it runs to over 160 inches (Vayattiri 169, Dévala 162), and an annual fail of 300 inches (25 feet) is not uncommon.
On the Malabar border the Wynad is girt with a belt of "moist ever-green" forest, "magnificent trees growing straight up to great heights, and so close together that little sunlight reaches the ground, which is littered thick with rotring vegetation, covered with creepers and undergrowth of many kinds, and swarms with leeches. Hence the fauna is mostly arboreal, and even in the tree-tops the density of foliage is such that grey is too conspicuous & colour for safety and the monkey (Macacus silenme) wears a coat of inky black, with whispe of white hair that simulate the Lichens hanging from the branches."
On the Mysore borders the vegetation is different, a broad sone of deciduous bamboo jungle. "The bamboo grows in clumps, with considerable open spaces between and with plenty of grass; the clumps themselves are impenetrable and are favourite lairs for tigers and panthers; but it is nevertheless possible to traverse these forests without being held up by tangled undergrowth, unless it be Lantana, a pest of very modern introduction." These bamboo jungles are saturated with malaria of a most malignant kind.
1 The highent points in those throo mom bors are (A) Benasurum, 6,767':(B) Kurchipandi-Mala 5,271; and (C) Vavul Mala, the "Camel's Hump," 7,673'.
· For this account of the foresta, I am indebted to Mr. Cammiade.