Ian Lockwood

Looking west over the plateau and over the southern escarpment of the Palani Hills.

Two years ago I was returning from North America to Sri Lanka and was treated to a once in a lifetime aerial view of a winter dawn over the southern Western Ghats. We were flying down from London, over Mumbai to Colombo and the sun rose as as we flew over the Nilgiri, Anaimalai and Palani Hills. These are some of the images that I was able to captures through a frustratingly scarred economy seat window. I have taken the liberty to highlight places that people familiar with the area will recognize. Our family friend, Kodai School graduate and distinguished Tamil scholar Dr. Clarence Maloney has suggested that I revise my spelling of the hills back to “Palani” to better represent the correct Tamil pronunciation. My use of “Palani” over the last decade had been based on the usage by organizations such as the Palni Hills Conversation Society (PHCC).

Aerial view showing the southern escarpment of the Palani Hills near the settlement of Kodaikanal. The Golf Course and Berijam Lake feature in in this image.

Terrain map of Palani and Anaimalai Hills showing rough angles of views of above photographs (source: iPhoto/Google maps).