Purple Hills

Tourists make a beeline to Mandalapatti in Kodagu to see hills bathed in dreamy shades of purplish blue

Madikeri: Every seven or 12 years, the hills of Mandalapatti in Kodagu burst into a sea of purplish blue flowers, a rare natural spectacle. And this season, tourists are making a beeline to have a glimpse of the bright purplish blue bell-shaped blooms.  

Mandalapatti is one of the most sought after tourist locations at a distance of 17 kilometres from Madikeri. According to villagers, the name Mandalapatti means that the place where ‘Heaven meets the Earth’ and the tourists who visit the area are spell-bound by the serene beauty, accompanied by mist that nature embraces in its arms.

Due to the rare bloom now, it is like an endless stretch of rolling hills carpeted with tiny purplish blue flowers. It is this time of the year such flowers (also called Neelakurinji in Kerala) with 40-odd varieties, blossom in all its grandeur. 

The photos have been captured by Star of Mysore reader and amateur photographer Kunjiyanda Machaiah (Machu) from Kodagu district. 

Botanists call it the blooming of ‘Strobilanthes kunthiana’, the botanical name of the flower. Locally, the flowers are called ‘Kumandhari’, ‘Aralupoo’ and ‘Kurrelpoo’. The flower belongs to the Acanthaceae family and was first spotted on the banks of River Kunthi in the Silent Valley of Kerala. Hence it was named Kunthiana. It is normally found in the Shola grassland in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

The flower usually blooms in the cold weather after monsoon and it is a shrub plant which has medicinal value. There are several species of the plant. One of the species ‘strobilanthes sessilis’ blooms every year and is found along the grassy slopes of Thadiyandamol Hills in Kodagu. In fact, the flowers blooming once annually or once in seven or 12 years depends on the availability of sunlight and water. 

These blooms can be witnessed between the months of July and October when the hills brighten up in all its glory unleashing a visual extravaganza. Mandalapatti is a part of Pushpagiri Reserve Forest.