Neelakurinji blooms in Sandur

While the people and ecosystem of Ballari are slowly recovering from the nightmarish unethical mining, the blue flowers that have carpeted the hills has come as a sign of hope. After a span of 12 years, the neelakurinji (Strobilanthes kunthianus) is blooming in the upper ridges of Sandur hills. It is a small herb that blooms in some parts of Western Ghats like the Nilgiris and Baba Budan Giri hills. When neelakurinji blooms in great numbers, it covers the entire grasslands around Shola forests, with its vibrant bluish-purple hue. In olden days, the tribal people related the blooming of neelakurinji to their age. Neelakurinji is a herb that grows anywhere between one and three feet tall, and it bears flowers in different months of monsoon, depending upon the region. The plant shows the peculiar behaviour of reproduction by flowering once in its life time (once in 12 years) and later dying. The phenomenon of mass seeding is called as ‘masting’, which is also seen in the bamboo species. These kinds of plants are called as plietesials.

Neelakurinji’s name (kunthianus) has been derived from River Kunthi in Silent Valley National Park, Kerala. The flower has several varieties and they flower at different intervals. The biological clock triggers the plant to flower en masse. The blooming of neelakurinji in some parts of the Western Ghats is a normal phenomenon. But when it happens in the eastern plains of Karnataka, it is considered special.

The Sandur Hills stands out of the rest in Deccan Plateau for the neelakurinji that grows here. The flower blooms near the Kumaraswamy Temple, near Ramgada village in Ramanamalai
forest and some other parts of Sandur Hills. It is
observed that the shrubs of neelakurinji grow in the slant slopes near the crest of the mountain ranges where the rainwater flows downwards. As September is the month of highest rainfall in Ballari district,
the flower’s blooming occurs during this period.
Honeybees and other insects throng the hills to get their share of nectar.

Neelakurinji also grows in the slopes of higher altitude near Shola forests of Western Ghats at the altitude of 1,000 metre mean sea level. At this altitude, tall trees don’t grow due to the extreme weather conditions like excessive raining and limited availability of nutrients. Therefore, the plant accumulates sufficient nutrients to blossom at a later time.

When it blooms, it has a bright colour and sweet fragrance. This allows for the neelakurinji to attract insects for pollination. As soon as it produces a large number of seeds, it dies. The dead plant again decomposes and turns into manure for the next generation of its species. The neelakurinjis use the long flowering interval as a survival strategy. Fortunately, the extreme weather conditions and changes in the surroundings have not affected these blue wonders so far.