Residents of Udhagamandalam town have asked the Horticulture Department to allow local residents to use government gardens and parks for walking, after the department has begun charging steep tariff and stipulated strict timings for morning walkers.
According to local residents, the officials from the Horticulture Department have begun insisting on an annual pass, which needs to be applied and paid for to be able to access the sprawling campus of the Government Botanical Garden, Rose Garden and other areas that are under the control of the Department of Horticulture and Plantation Crops.
P. Rani, a resident of Udhagamandalam, said she was told that even if she was able to procure a pass, she would have to leave the garden by 7.30 a.m. as tourists would begin coming to the areas. “As we are local residents, who pay taxes, put up with tourist traffic and multiple other issues for the benefit of tourists, they should allow us to access public spaces like parks and gardens free of cost, possibly after they show identification that they are local residents,” said Ms. Rani.
Shobana Chandrashekar from the Make Ooty Beautiful Project, said she and her friends would walk at the botanical garden till around six months ago. “One day, we were stopped by a park employee and were informed that we needed to pay for an annual pass to continue our morning walks,” she said, adding that it was unviable for local residents to finish their walk before 7.30 a.m. due to the cold weather.
Ms. Chandrashekar and her friends, who tried walking the road to Navanagar Palace, and stopped after a tiger was spotted in the area recently, have started an online petition to keep entry to the botanical garden free for morning walkers, which at the time of writing this story has reached over 1,400 signatures.
The parks and gardens of the Nilgiris have become totally economically unviable for the poor, says G. Janardhanan, president of the Ooty Public Awareness Association. “All these parks and gardens have entrance fee structured only for tourists and are totally inaccessible for local residents and the poor,” said Mr, Janardhanan.
