Chugging along the winding road beyond Araku’s last market area where the weekly shandy is held, a neatly-laid pathway less than half a kilometre-long tucks in a surprise.
Ahead are rows of towering, gently swaying, pine trees veiled by a curtain of fog, lifting slowly. This is the Araku Pinery, a new eco-tourism initiative started by the Andhra Pradesh Forest Department in Anjoda. This new tourist destination, a one-of-its-kind government initiative at the region, is developed on a patch of pine plantation overlooking the valley and being managed by the Van Sanrakshan Samiti (VSS) of the local tribal community of Shantinagar village. Nestled in the lap of the valleys of Eastern Ghats, here you can escape the confines of a rushed city life. Here, the air is instantly cleaner and the surroundings, greener.
