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Friday, May 12, 2017

Shengaltheri, Kalakkad, Thirunelveli

Shengaltheri, Kalakkad, Thirunelveli
Shengaltheri is located in Kalakkad mountain area in Tirunelveli district. It is 14 Kms from Kalakkad village. This area comes under Kalakkad Wild Life sanctuary. This place is a popular picnic spot because of its natural beauty and salubrious climate. Manimuthar originates here. The perennial waterfall is an added attraction for tourists. In Shengaltheri, a Rest House and one Watch Tower are the available accommodation facilities. There is another P.W.D. Inspection Bungalow near the bus stop at the Junction. The nearest Railway stations are Valliyur & Nanguneri. To go to Shengaltheri, prior permission has to be obtained from Field Director, Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, Thirunelveli.

It is located on a grassy region of the Western Ghats; it is surrounded by evergreen and moist deciduous forest, grassland and Karumandiamman Falls that feeds Pachchaiyaaru and Manimutharu. A stroll through the vast evergreen forests of this locations could introduce you to a few real rarities of this region such as lion-tailed macaque, brown mongoose, brown palm civet, Nilgiri marten, Jerdon’s Baza and blue-eared kingfisher to name a few - species generally restricted to mature, dense rainforest.

The grasslands and deciduous forests offer better visibility and large mammals including Indian gaur, Sambar and elephant herds are seen quite often and wild dog and panthers are seen occasionally. A striking variety of arboreal animals including flying lizards, gliding frogs, snakes, squirrels and primates are among the other highlights of this magical location. You can relax in the solar-powered guest houses being maintained by Department of Forest.

If you are so lucky, an adventurous trek from Shengaltheri to Manjolai, another scenic tourist spot with tea plantations via Netteriyankaal may introduce a few more ‘locals’ of this region – tiger, king cobra etc. This place was kept hidden because of some un-proved believes. The people here believe that the place Shengaltheri contains Diamonds hidden inside in it. But later on the false believes ridden away as people started enjoying this place as a nature's beauty.

Although there were lots of rumors about this awesome tourist place, but till now this has not been proved. Because of this reason Government of Tamilnadu always kept this as secret to protect this place from the people who believes in this rumors so that they won't cause harm to the wild life and the living things those belongs to this forest. Now a day’s people started to coming to this place just to enjoy the gift of the nature and its beauty as this place really calms you down and makes you feel better. This is the speciality of this awesome tourist spot.
And the most interesting and too good feature in this place is that there is a Wooden House for tourist peoples those who come there for staying or camping. The above picture shows the extra ordinary view of the wood house. Shengaltheri is located at about 14 Kms from Kalakkad. Kalakad is located at about 12 kms West of Nanguneri, 37 Kms from Ambasamudram, 44 Kms from Thirunelveli, 135 Kms from Thiruvananthapuram and 203 Kms from Madurai. Nearest Railway Station is located at Nanguneri and Thirunelveli. Nearest Airport is located Madurai and Thiruvananthapuram.