Kurudi Hills and Ponnuthu

Well, completely for trekkers’ fun, the Kurudi hills cover the entire area that diversely stretches from Saibaba Kovil – Mettupalayam… Not precisely monitored though, they slope down near Karamadai leaving way for the Nilgiris to stretch over… I am sure this is the least popular hike or trek spot in Coimbatore with a patterned admonishing from villagers nearby…

The hills stay a lot away from the critically menacing pollution furthermore a finer ambience that potentially locates it the best spot to worship, trek and discover… The range houses many unnamed temples still with some well liked and frequented… Frankly, I don’t think a lot of people come around to visit temples here except to those of the villagers from both sides of the foothills… It’s in point of fact a very confusing hill range which would possibly appear to change shapes right from start until the end… Quite logical on detailed scrutiny… The Kurudi hills start from Kaundampalayam, which could seem like its united and with no gaps and narrow ridges… Further west, it would welcome you with cut edges, longer peaks separating with not broader gaps though… the unbelievably true fact is that every separated smaller hill has a route to each other, used by villagers at the foothills for years now… Kurudi hills also come along when you travel to Anaikatti, yeah, because the square back of Veerapandi is Chinnathadagam… both reasonably compact villages with chiefly tribes… Other villages you should know are kovanur, velliangadu and tholampalayam… however these are deeply locative towards the forests and you can’t trip there because I’ve heard my friends coming back with a big access denial… A parallel road from Velliangadu routes to other wilder side of the hill that could take you to Anaikatti and beyond…

Now, temples… as I know there’s one good temple you need to must visit… It’s Ponnuthu Mariamman Temple which is open throughout the year yet with restricted access when it comes to moving further uphill… You won’t find much transport and movement across the way to the temple again, with just a mini bus from NarasimhanaiackkenPalayam…Once you get to the foothills, its better to go uphill and as conventional the priest would scare you about wildlife… To be safely tripping, take a step ahead to return well before 5:00 PM in the evening… The hill tribes live uphill in caves, where they come down seasonally to sell honey and hill vegetated herbs to the village of Kurudampalayam… Trek sources and those residing near foothills spoke to us with big information… strange but shocking… The tribes dance and celebrate a festival uphill on days of Ammavasai and Pournami… It meant something auspicious to them and hell a lot of people downhill noticed the fire burning on the hills plainly resembling street lights on a long view….

Some friends of mine tried talking to the tribes where they told stories about how they cross hills to reach on lines of safety… Literally crossing a hill in between is what they do… Taking the route from Jambukandi Village, this squarely is to the northeast of Anaikatti and quite the inter-state border… Jambukandi is grounded by sugarcane fields with an inclined north leading to Kinnakorai, a village that marks the branded origin of Bhavani river… A natural lawn for wildlife, Jambukandi can’t contain any larger groups of settlements excepting farmers who own lands…

The Ponnuthu Mariamman temple has its own big story…Its purely matchless with the pride of placing the Amman inside a cave that’s all time dark… All you’ll see is the spring inside the cave which showers never-endingly over the Goddess… The temple priest told us the waters are no way seasonal and keep pouring right through the year… Villages’ downhill experience water scarcity in summer though… That doesn’t stop Ponnuthu from providing exceptionally tastier water alongside finer medicinal qualities; now here I have to translate so that you’ll vividly comprehend… Ponnuthu could be split to Pon & uthu.. Pon is GOLD & Uthu is spring in the regional language, tamil (தமிழ்) finally making it GOLDEN SPRING or பொன் ஊத்து… You’ll notice the weather gradually changing upon climbing… Could be chill, perilously swampy and clouds would ruthlessly engulf you if it’s in and around monsoon…

Draw a safe trip uphill and make safer return with cautious planning else then I am sorry if that should end detrimentally worse..