Dear Reader,
One day, more than three years ago, a group of us were seized with the crazy idea of starting a local publication in Kodaikanal. As you may recall, The Kodai Chronicle began during the second wave of the pandemic. Like a few others, I had returned to my hometown ahead of the lockdown. The town had since been closed off, unless you were a resident, and it felt like the world we knew was ending.
I was among those who helped the Covid-afflicted in stricken cities find oxygen, medicine, hospital beds (who will ever forget that frightening litany?), via WhatsApp groups. We ourselves enjoyed the peace of our hill station without the thrum of the visitors which fuel some of its economy (guilty pleasures). This was a deceptive calm, of course, as the reality was that one case of Covid could have afflicted all of the town easily–among them more vulnerable senior citizens. And so we began, flying by the seats of our pants–without a business plan, let alone a three-year plan.
We collected resources related to Covid alongside essays about the town’s offbeat charm and odd characters. We reached across different geographies and age groups within the Palani Hills, and found much we didn’t know about our habitat and history. There was never a paucity of stories.
As we grew–and grew out of the terrible tragedy of that second wave–it was clearer than ever that there was an even more urgent catastrophe at our doorstep: that of climate change, and impending eco-Armageddon. As one of the most biodiverse areas in the world, the Western Ghats are a crucial player in our fate as a planet. And little Kodaikanal, with its population of 50,000 or so, is one of its vital, throbbing pulses.
Could we use storytelling and journalism to help conserve these hills, from the margins? Dared we place media at the center of the crisis, when there were so many other pressing needs? Slowly, we found our footing as an eco-publication, with encouragement from trustee Lathika George and the writer Zai Whitaker, our advisor: both believed that it was possible to act to save Kodaikanal, which has been increasingly overdeveloped, like other hill stations.
An early interview with the indefatigable Bittu Sahgal egged us on: this was legit! We found funding and a wider audience, thanks to the professional guidance of Jacob Cherian and Neha Sumitran. We steadied our course thanks to the enthusiasm and steady support of editorial advisor Nitin Padte, trustee Avijit Michael and, later, Chennai representative Rakesh Raghunathan, as well as our many advisors–and, thanks to you, reader.
Along the way, there were new voices, new formats, and better representation for the variety of experience contained in these hills. We wandered to other mountains consistently, finding parallels. But after more than a dozen issues, six of them in print, we found we had still not hit our stride. We weren’t able to create enough income via advertising, subscriptions and donations, and were unable to find other forms of income. We were still relying heavily on volunteers and donated creative resources. We were unable to find enough writers and photographers who knew the terrain.
Often, I found myself running from my day job to steaming cups of tea with Kamakshi Narayanan, our Tamil editor, and Murugeshwari, a 25-year-old reporter from the Palani Hills’ Palaiyar community. Murugeshwari has been writing for us these last few years, and she has now secured a grant from Shared Ecologies in New Delhi. This is the land her ancestors knew most intimately and venerated; one mine came to later, when my grandfather first visited. She has so many stories that are unfamiliar to us, and shares them with the flair of a natural storyteller. We sit together under the strong mountain sun and discuss our different Kodais, admiring hers.
The two questions that refrained, as we considered next steps for TKC: What can we manage to do if we persist, and whose voices can we help amplify?
It was during a conversation with the artist and ecologist Ravi Agarwal this year that we found support for better representation of indigenous voices. He understood what we were trying to do, immediately, and his encouragement has meant a world of difference to young Murugeshwari.
It all came together when we considered how we could best widen the scope of our endeavour and connect to other Sky Islands.
What is a sky island?
A sky island is a geographically isolated high-elevation or mountainous region that forms an island habitat distinct from its lower-elevation surroundings. These regions are often characterized by rich biodiversity and endemism as well as altitudinal migration. In the Western Ghats, shola sky islands contain a matrix of montane forests and grasslands, found in their highest reaches. Sky islands are surrounded by radically different lowland habitats.
The term was first introduced by Natt N Dodge in 1943, describing the Chiricahua Mountains as ‘a mountain island in a desert sea’ (Arizona Highways). It was subsequently popularized in the ’60s. The southern part of the Western Ghats (south of Kudremukh and the BR Hills Kemmangundi) are the sky islands; of these, the largest human-inhabited ones (50 million people live in the Western Ghats, as per the 2014 census) are the Nilgiris and the Palani-Annamalai hills. Here’s a peek (video: Pollachi Papyrus).
‘For places like the Palani Hills with summits and plateaus, lofty and cool, so far removed from the sweltering plains below, the term “sky islands” is most fitting,’ photographer and writer Ian Lockwood has noted. This is an area he has showcased in his work, after a conversation with scientist V V Robin sparked his imagination, and, later, ours. His concern for these landscapes is mirrored by many: it is their preservation that we place at the centre of our endeavour (both Robin and Lockwood are our advisors).
Presenting Sky Islands
Sky Islands will be the first of its kind: a platform for engagement, action as well as storytelling across the Western Ghats, and an opportunity for connection. (Click here for more details, in our working business plan.)
We are aware that this is a vast enterprise, and that it will take some time to cement much of the network we have identified. We are aware that we are losing some of what made The Kodai Chronicle so wonderful: the beauty of being hyperlocal, communicating with a small audience and not having to think ‘big’ (or big enough to survive). But, we also recognise that it’s better to retain some of the essence of that initial, ambitious endeavour than to give it up altogether–and that we gain a lot from reaching out to these other mountains.
Over the last few years, I’ve gotten to know some of the amazing people of the Nilgiris, via the fine folks at NilgiriScapes and Coonoor and Co, visiting the Wild Earth Festival and Coonoor’s organic market. I’ve visited restful Little Flower Farms in Vagamon, Kerala and Goa Botanical Sanctuary in Goa, Kerala, admiring the rewilding and restoration efforts undertaken in these different reaches of the Western Ghats. Almost made it to Wayanad, and visited it via Siddharth Krishnan’s great essay on the catastrophe there, instead (Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary, we will make it there yet!). For, we have been testing the waters with one story a month from different parts of the Western Ghats (which includes home base Kodi, of course!).
There is so much more to explore. We will be sharing more of our site (it is being beta tested, as funds have been slow to come) in the months to come.
Sign Up!
In the meanwhile, please click here to sign up early and support us! We are aiming to raise Rs 50 lakhs to hire a full team and give this a proper chance, having learnt the hard way that even the best effort cannot find its way without the right resources. One of our first priorities: a team member who can lead our financial growth as an organization so we can become self-sustaining, one day.
Until then, we salute the end of our little experiment–and the beginning of another one.
Thank you,
Rajni George, for Team TKC
Contact: skyislands25@gmail.com for feedback and questions about Sky Islands; and kodaichronicletrust@gmail.com for queries about your contribution.
