Oh, an IT Complex in Nilgiris?

 

Nilgiris has still a magical air to it.  Anyone who visits the landscape can't escape the moments of elation just visiting NIlgiris.  One has to ride through lush forests from whichever direction we chose to come from.  The valleys, the lakes, the farms, the tea estates, the plantations paint a magical tapestry.  While those who know Ooty and Coonoor from decades back talk about the charm that is lost, for the hundreds who come every day Nilgiris can still be magical.  Nilgiris is the watershed for forests in the plains - Mudumalai and Bandipur, Sathyamangalam to to the south east, Silent valley to the west.  The streams and rivers from Nilgiris eventually pass through the Delta, ushering in a harvest of plenty.  The zing in the N in Pongal comes from Nilgilris for sure.  

More than 700,000 people live in Nilgiris, more than 400,000 of them in urban areas scattered between Ooty, Coonoor, Kotagiri and Gudalur and the remaining in small and large villages within Nilgiris.    The tea and horticultural (vegetables and fruits) sectors contribute to at least 70% of the local economy, providing livelihoods to small and large farmers as well employment through corporate plantations.  Nilgiris has a prosperous air to it.  Villages like Kattabettu or Yellanalli have brightly painted homes, with cars parked along the road side, with the markets carrying every good and services one requires.  This transformation has taken place within less than a generation.  People want more out of life than just incomes from tea estates and horticulture.  Children have been educated, have gone through college and they need jobs.  It is surely difficult for parents to send them off to distant cities such as Coimbatore or Bangalore or Chennai.  Manufacturing industries are a non-starter in Nilgiris.  With many already working for the IT industry, would not a technology park in Nilgiris make sense.  On the face of it, it may seen like a compelling idea,  After all we need a building full of cubicles connected to the outside world through a fiber optic cable.

The problems start with location.  Yeddappalli village as the crow flies is 350 meters away from the forests that extend into Forest Dale - a beautiful blend of exotic plantations  and natural sholas that are part of the watershed for Wellington township.  Yeddapalli is about 500 meters northwest of Bandisholai another beautiful stretch of forests near Sims park feeding the Coonoor-Wellington watershed.  Yeddapalli lies upstream at an elevation if 2065 meters, while the 

forests slope across hillocks towards Wellington township at an elevation of 1865 metes   

Over a thousand people are expected to work in this IT complex, bringing in at least 500 vehicles into the already crowded Coonoor - Kotagiti road ,   At least 40000 litres of water would be needed per day at work, and another 100,000 liters per day at home.  For an IT complex to work, at this scale one needs at least a six to ten floor building.  Given the soft soils in Nilgiris and torrential downpours during the north-east monsoon an office complex in this location seems loaded with risks,  Clearly if eompleyment generation is such an imperative, and that too in a district which is 60% more affluent than the delta , any construction has to be in relatively flat terrain, within the municipal limits of existing townships where no further displacement of nature capital can take place.  An IT complex carved out of relatively levelled areas near the Ooty market could be considered.  Given the bus connectivity this would be  better than keeping a complex right where nature capital needs to be thriving.

Bangalore is the IT Capital of India.  It is not uncommon to see employees spend two hours to commute each way .  It is often the norm.  For the IT sector to thrive it requires people to people contact.  New talent needs to come and go.  In such a flux organizations adapt and grow, which brings us to should the complex exist in Nilgiris at all.  Why not Mettupalayam, the airport is less than an hour away.  There are trains connecting it to Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.  Working three days a week at the office and the remaining at home is the norm.  Just an imagine, a commute to Mettupalayam, downhill at 7 AM, in time for work on a Tuesday and back on Thursday night, with calls and a workstation at home overlooking the mists and the clouds and greenery, and cups of tea.

It is really time to wear the Nilgiri hat and question the need for a TIDEL park by the woods in Yeddapalli, and plead with officials to find a better location , which generates jobs and opportunties for the youth in Nilgiris, while preserving the nature capital that still remains in Nilgiris.