There is a saying among the residents of Udhagamandalam that a local can reach the centre of the bustling hill town from any of the hills that surround it in less than 20 minutes if they know the right shortcuts. The shortcuts, known commonly as “bridle paths” were part of the town’s planned infrastructure by the British to ensure that walking was a viable means of getting around the town.
However, due to decades of neglect, most of these pathways are now badly damaged, poorly lit, overgrown with weeds and bushes or have simply disappeared due to becoming encroached upon by local businesses and residential properties.
These bridle pathways are found throughout the town, including Elk Hill, Fern Hill, Rose Mount, up to the Government Arts College and also cutting through parts of Havelock Road towards the St. Stephen’s and Sacred Heart Churches.
“These walkways, in both Udhagamandalam and Coonoor, were baked into the town planning and design of the colonial administration, for both horse-drawn carriages and for pedestrians to get across town quickly and efficiently,” said Mr. G. Janardhanan, President of the Ooty Public Awareness Association.
P.J. Vasanthan, a local history enthusiast from the Nilgiris, quoting multiple sources on the “walks and drives” of Udhagamandalam and Coonoor towns, said that a walkway in its “truest sense” came into being only after the inception of the Government gardens, largely through the exertions of the architect of the Government Botanical Garden, McIvor, who commenced designing the garden 175-yearss-ago.
“There were numerous other bridle paths and carriageways through which one could always take a walk, and the earliest of such was the one around the lake.” Dr. Baikie, the first secretary of the Ooty Club in 1834 had described the six to seven-mile circuit around the lake as one of the most scenic, healthful and agreeable drives of India, or perhaps any part of the world can boast, said Mr. Vasanthan.
The town of Coonoor too had multiple walks and drives, and one of the earliest would have been the one to reach Teneriffe, which was referred to as “Castle Hill,” which Mr. Vasanthan said in the distant past, offered a “comprehensive view of the Coonoor, its winding roads, gabled roofs and many beautiful gardens.”
Shobana Chandrashekar, one of the founders of the Make Ooty Beautiful (MOB) project, who spearheaded the clean-up of one such bridle path leading to the Ooty bus stand said that though some of the paths still exist, that they were rarely used by pedestrians. “Much of these paths are badly damaged and have become a drinking spot for people, and due to being hardly used, also become a dumping ground for garbage,” said Ms. Chandrashekar.
Ms. Chandrashekar said that if renovated and maintained, the pathways could offer local residents as well as tourists an alternative way of moving around Udhagamandalam town. “It would be an excellent idea for the municipality to map out the remaining paths and come up with plans to renovate and maintain them, so that the town, which is struggling with problems associated with commercial tourism, becomes more pedestrian-friendly,” said Mr. Janardhanan, adding part of the ₹10 crore budget, that was sanctioned to celebrate the 200th year of the first colonial expedition to the Nilgiris, could have been spent on renovating these paths within the town.
