Vagamon - Shooting Location/Tourism spot/Paragliding Destination

Vagamon is a hill station located in Kottayam-Idukki border of Kottayam district of Kerala at an altitude of 1,100 mtr above sea level.  India. It has a cool climate with the temperature between 10 and 23 °C during a summer midday. National Geographic Traveler has listed Vagamon on their directory of the '50 most attractive places to visit in India’.

Still untouched by commercialisation, the sleepy town with its scenic valleys, beautiful green meadows, enchanting pine forests, mists, fogs, tea estates, waterfalls with the overall greenery is really striking. The landscape is mostly hilly bald with green meadows. Vagamon is also home to a large variety of flowers and orchids. Cuddled up within three striking hills Thangal, Murugan and Kurisumala hills which are the representation of the chief religions in Kerala, i.e. Hindu, Muslim, and Christian which represent the cultural harmony. Vagamon has amenities for trekking, paragliding, mountaineering and rock climbing. Vagamon is an emerging international paragliding destination in south India. However business interests are trying their best to exploit and sell and market vagamon for tourists. How much benefits the local people are receiving from tourism boom is to be seen. The efforts made by the Kurishumala Ashram have helped the farmers of vagamon to improve their earnings by ensuring better price for milk and marketing opportunities.

Vagamon is at the fringe of the Western Ghats and the foot hills on its lower side reach up to Teekoy with a gradual descent. This narrow strip of descending land gives a vital connectivity to the plains as both sides of vagamon up to kuttikkanam on the south west and moolamattom on the north east, are marked by steep and inaccessible hill slopes. Travelling by the hill highway in this section is an exhilarating experience with deep valleys and magnificent views all around. Vagamon presents very spectacular views with an ethereal touch. Vagamon's charm is worth experiencing and is indeed one of the must see places for tourists. Reaching Vagamon itself is an extraordinary experience. The meandering road to Vagamon is cut in solid rock lined with pine forests. And as you wind your way through green capped hills, the rolling plains come into view thousands of feet below you. The road to vagamon from Erattupetta, the gateway of Malanadue opened an easily accessible and direct route to vagamon from the plains. This road which was constructed in the 1950s was an engineering marvel and is rated a state highway. The road was made in treacherous and dizzying terrain under the initiative and leadership of Acharya Francis who established the Kurisumala Ashramam. About a dozen workers died during the construction at the hanging cliffs and a 20 foot tall memorial tower stands in honour of those who gave their life for this road project at the beginning of the road in Teekoy town junction. Always be alert and keep yourself safe by not standing on hill top when there is suspected rain, since there can be lightning hazard.

The nearby Kurisumala Ashram is an abode of calm and spiritual delight. This hill area includes 12 sub mounds where pilgrims visit. Travelers can enjoy trekking and climbing this high hill. The area is fully surrounded with Tea estates and lakes. 
Indo-Swiss Project dairy farms : Indo-Swiss Project dairy farms is situated on the Kurisumala hill. The dairy farm is managed by the Kurisumala monks (restricted entry).

Mitraniketan: Padma Shri Laurie Baker's & wife Dr. Elizabeth Baker's previous residence (ashasadan) and workstation (mitraniketan) and also home to nurse Alina Cattani, and Dr. Hildegarde Sina,constructed in 1963, it is famous for its Baker style of construction.

Vagamon Meadows: The rolling green meadows of Vagamon has a lake amidst them. It has for long been a favorite location for shooting movie songs.

Pine Forests: A valley having huge lofty pine trees lined in rows (pine valleys is one of the Most attractive place in VAGAMON)

Mooppanpara: It is a v-shaped canyon, one of the admired view points as well acknowledged as a suicide point. The outlook from the summit of the strenuous climb is amazing.[3]

Murugan Hill: It is situated near to Thangal Para. A Murugan temple is situated which is devoted to Lord Muruga with gorgeous stone age carving.[4]

Paragliding and Paragliding Festival

Bible Believers' Assembly is located on Zion Nagar, Vagamon its a place to worship God in Truth and Spirit. It is the first Pentecostal church in Vagamon now with Malayalam, Tamil worship services.

Feature films in Vagamon[edit]

Song sequences of many South Indian films are shot in Vagamon. Recently, the Naseeruddin Shah starrer - The Blueberry Hunt - was shot in Vagamon and surrounding area.

Vagamon is located 15 km from kottamala 39 km from Thodupuzha,23 km from Erattupetta, 33 km away from Palai, 45 km from Kumily, 22 km from Kuttikanam and about 65 km from Kottayam. Key tourist centers such as Thekkady, Peermade and Kulamavu are straightforwardly reachable from Vagamon.

By rail:

Kottayam, about 75 km from Peermede, is the nearest railway station.

By air:

Cochin International Airport, about 150 km from Peermede, is the nearest airport.

The Smallest Elephant - Borneo Pygmy

The Smallest Elephant - Borneo Pygmy

It is estimated that there were once more than 350 species of elephants in the world. Today we only have two of them left , the African elephant (Loxodonta Africana) and the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) . Even though both species belong  to the Eliphantidae family there are many physical differences between the two. One of the most obvious differences is the ears. African elephants have huge, flappy ears while Asian elephants have smaller ones. But today we introduce you to yet another member of the elephant family which is in fact believed to be a subspecies of the Asian elephant - the pygmy elephant of Borneo.

Pygmy elephants are cryptids reported to be living in both Africa and Asia. The African Pygmy Elephant (Loxodonta pumilio) is believed to be a tiny morph of the African forest elephants.  There are claims by Kani tribals dwelling in the rainforests of India that there are pygmy elephants in the Peppara forest range. They refer to them as ‘Kallana’. However, the existence of a pygmy variety in India has not been scientifically ascertained.  And the term pygmy elephant should not be confused with dwarf elephant, which is used for a number of extinct species of elephants that evolved their size due to island dwarfing. Surprisingly one dwarf elephant was spotted in Sri Lanka back in 2013. It is fully grown but is only 5 feet tall.

Once believed to be remnants of a domesticated herd given to the Sultan of Sulu in the 17th century, pygmy elephants were determined by WWF to be genetically different from other Asian elephants. DNA evidence proved these elephants were isolated about 300,000 years ago from their cousins on mainland Asia and Sumatra. Over time, they became smaller with relatively larger ears, longer tails and straighter tusks. Today, the pygmy elephants of Borneo, Malaysia and Indonesia are the smallest elephants in Asia. It is a small creature that breeds in the Asian region having a length of approximately 2.5 meters. The recent study has especially accumulated the number of such creatures being alive today are about fifteen hundred in numbers.

These elephants possess thick strong limbs and huge feet in order to balance their body. They have hairs on their thick body which generally protect them from cold. The major cause of survival in the forest land of this animal is their tusks that enable them to fulfill their thirst by digging, searching for roots, barks and various other sources as well. They always use their long trunk to eat and drink which generally assist them to live in the wild atmosphere.

The necessary feeds of Borneo Pygmy Elephants are plants due to which they are declared as herbivorous. For instance, their daily feed is about hundred and fifty kilo grams of plants that include flowers, grasses, palm leaves, bananas and various other green formations in plants.

It has been notified that the major enemies of Pygmy Elephants are humans predominantly, which has made them endangered species. These elephants are endangered because of their ivory tusks being sold by humans in terms of getting huge amount of money in return. This is the main reason of this animal getting vanished from the human eyes.

The most obvious threat to these elephants today are the habitat loss. They are being degraded and fragmented by the increasing human population. This has resulted in human elephant conflicts, which usually occurs when the elephants destroy or eat the crops. A large number of people as well as elephants are killed every year, because of this. The expansion of humans has interrupted the elephants’ migration routes, diminished their sources of food and of course has disturbed their habitat.

An interaction with the surroundings of such an animal has made it a little shy and immensely gentle in behavior especially. The particular behavior of this animal is that he/she knows swimming in the flowing river and he/she can easily pass through the difficult river barriers. The main cause of defense of such animals is that they use their feet for kicking and stomping. They also utilize their tusks warding off their enemies.

It is an alarming fact that these cute lovable animals, the real-life ‘Dumbos’ with their strong resemblance to the cartoon character, should one day end up like the mammoths which became extinct in the ice-age. Even though, the pygmy elephant is not included in the World Conservation Union’s Red List of Threatened Species which classifies about 40,000 species according to their risk of extinction.  Let’s hope that conservationists will take all the necessary measures to ensure their numbers grow from just a thousand to many more thousands in the years to come.