By Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem, MD

Our Chamundi Hill is undoubtedly the most imposing backdrop that lends a very unique and majestic look to our city. Being visible from far and wide and from all directions, its visibility heralds to all our guests and visitors that they have arrived at their destination.

And, to the many Mysureans like me, who venture out of our homes, as we often do, it tells us, as it looms into view, that we are back home, where we belong! Geologists say that this mound, yes, it is barely a mound in comparison to many other Hills and mountains, is much older than the mighty Himalayas.

And, to all those who look at it with belief, it is a divine destination too, being the seat of the temples that they seek to visit, with their sense of reverence and devotion. But over the recent years, this much visited Hill seems to be jinxed by some strange malady, stemming clearly from sheer human ineptitude and disregard for the sanctity and beauty of the place.

Although the whole Hill and its surroundings are designated as a plastic and litter free zone, we can see them both, in abundance, sadly, along with liquor bottles, at every nook and corner. And, the people and the authorities too are both culpable of being responsible for this desecration.

The Civic Authorities are just not doing their job of enforcing the ban, by levying stiff penalties on the offenders and the latter, undeterred and emboldened by this lack of enforcement, toss both their civic sense and their trash all over the countryside, with gay abandon! 

The once clean and pristine environs of the temples atop the Hill too have been reduced to a very shabby state, with every inch of open space usurped, thanks to all the unauthorised shacks and shops that have been allowed to mushroom unchecked there. Because a great many of them sell eatables, they in turn contribute their share of garbage to the surroundings now.

Our former Maharajas who made motorable approach roads to every nook and corner of the Hill, were so thoughtful that they have made at least a dozen large laybys, along all the roads there, where visitors could stop their vehicles and get a glimpse of the beautiful landscape all around the Hill from their points of vantage.

But this simple pleasure has now been taken away from us because we see boulders placed along every layby, blocking vehicular access to them. The result is that if people decide to park their vehicles briefly and get down to view the verdant countryside from those spots, they will end up blocking the road and putting others to inconvenience. It is difficult to say why this has been done and who is responsible for this thoughtless act.

When I spoke to a few of the staff members of the Forest Department whom I once met on the roadside there, they said that it was the handiwork of the contractor who had been given the rights to install a telescope half way up the Hill, to deny tourists a free view from the Hill and get them to have it only through his telescope, after paying a fee for it.

When I took up the matter with the man manning the telescope, he blamed the Traffic Police of doing it to deter people from crowding at the free viewpoints and blocking traffic. Not leaving the matter there, when I asked a senior Traffic Police Officer friend of mine if this was true, he smiled and said that his force was completely guiltless of this crime.

Now I stand perplexed and clueless about how those inanimate stones, on their own, could reach where they stand now! When a portion of the road leading to the huge stone bull, half way up the Hill, first suffered a landslide in October 2021, followed by two others, the Authorities announced that this problem would be set right very soon. But this ‘very soon’ seems to be taking forever, going by the slow pace of the progress of this work, if at all it is going on.

The reason for the inordinate delay in the completion of this repair work is very unclear because this problem is certainly not beyond the abilities of our road engineers who routinely attend to such events across the length and breadth of our state.

It is common knowledge that landslides of a much greater magnitude occur regularly during every rainy season, along the Shiradi and Charmadi Ghat roads that connect our southern coastal areas with the rest of the State. Traffic that is disrupted as a result, is quickly restored each time and life quickly returns to normal for the road users and also for the people dwelling in the surrounding towns and villages.

What makes this restoration admirable is that it is routinely accomplished during the peak monsoon months, in pouring rain, across some very unstable and tricky terrain. But in the case of the Chamundi Hill, it is a relatively short stretch of road that has suffered a landslide, which we have not been able to set right, despite six full years having gone by.

This clearly indicates that there is an abysmal lack of will and sincerity in completing this work, just because it is not a much-travelled road and because no one is complaining.

The tens of thousands of devotees too, who visit the Hill throughout the year, seem to be content with being able to gain access to the Sri Chamundeshwari and the much older Sri Mahabaleshwara Temple atop the Hill and pay their respects to Goddess Chamundeshwari and Lord Shiva, without being perturbed by their inability to pay their respects to Lord Shiva’s beloved bull, sitting alone and forlorn, in a remote corner of the Hill!

But although this spot is not much sought after by tourists and visitors, keeping the approach road to it in a usable condition and the whole Hill itself in its original, pristine state, is a very necessary exercise to maintain the image of our State.

Let us all remember and keep reminding ourselves from time to time, that like the many beautiful things we have here in our city, this Hill too is one of our most beautiful assets.

So, we Mysureans who take pride in our heritage and the beauty of our State, would do well to prevail upon the Authorities who seem to have turned a blind eye to an eyesore that can be set right in the blinking of an eye, to get into the act and set things right immediately!

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