Vagamon
Welcome to Vagamon for the festival of colors green, yellow, blue and pink on God’s chosen acres. Vagamon is one of Earth’s fast receding pastures sand-witched by a riot of colors offered at the latest by the flags of a handful of nations from where paragliders are expected to zoom down for the Third International Paragliding Festival on April 6-12, 2008, at Vagamon village, Idukki district of Kerala, on the sothern tip of India.
A hill station on Kerala’s eastern High Ranges, Vagamon, lies at 3500 ft MSL (1050 meters). Temperature between 10 and 25 degree Celsius.
With most of the rollicking hills under green carpet, encircled by pine forests and tea gardens, the whole area looks like Alpian ranges and the Swiss selected it to found the Indo-Swiss Cattle farm in 1966. It is now a Dairy Science College under the Kerala Agricultural University.
Having a hoary past right from the Poonjar Raja days, Vagamon became prominent with advent of the English planters who established coffee and tea gardens like Bon-Ami, Twiford, Semini Valley, Fairfield and Heliberia in the early 19 th century. Most of the 50 odd estates, though now owned by Indians, retain the very romantic names to the delight of the visiting Britons and the Europeans.
A pristine village with no pretensions of urban charm, Vagamon lies on the easternmost border of Kottayam district and the westernmost border of Idukki district. And hence the region is unspoiled virgin land blessed by Mother Nature’s choicest virtues—greenery all around with people working in plantations or tending their own milking herds.
Chasing the monsoon in Vagamon is an enchanting experience. Hundreds of silvery rivulets cascading from the rocky promenades into the misty mountain paths is a rare treat to the senses. Two rivers, the Meenachil and the Manimalyar, have their origin in the Vagamon hills. No wonder, discerning visitors love Vagamon as an abode of peace and tranquility, shrouded in the mystery of the flying while clouds against the bluish yonder.
Fountainhead of two Rivers - more
