These are the reasons why the reforestation of Arunachala will furnish Tamil Nadu with a very powerful environmental precedent site:
- because a mountain in the centre of a plain is such a conspicuous advantage in water management
- because the terrain surrounding the mountain has been so obviously ravaged in recent centuries that a return to health will be spectacularly dramatic and moreover
- this transformation will be witnessed regularly by a vast number of persons from all over India since Arunachala has become an extremely popular pilgrimage place with an estimated eight to ten million visitors every year.
THE REFORESTATION OF ARUNACHALA IS AN IRRESISTABLE ENVIRONMENTAL OPPORTUNITY
There are signs now that the greening of the mountain is creating a new awareness in the local population:
The Restawhile Parks are flourishing behind protective gates, opened at Full Moons. The sadhus at Nerudhi Lingam tie little orange flags around the trees they planted, to show who protects them. And the sadhus at Nerannamalai are keeping a watchful eye on the saplings they planted adjacent to the beautiful mandapam; they make garlands from flowering trees planted a year ago.
And around at Dharani's Breakfast Spot, her husband has decided to venture into the nursery business, an astonishing feat indicated by a load of good red soil dumped next to the place where his kids take a bath. Times are changing.
The power of our environmental precedent is superficially attributable to the character below on the left here - the film star Rajni Kanth who popularized the full moon walk around the hill, in a film in which he claimed that Lord Arunachala Siva grants walkers any wish they make.
