The thought of visiting South India fills me with joy. It almost feels like going back to another home. And this time, it was the Nilgiris, so the excitement was a little more than usual.
It was Ooty, a hill station I had visited a couple of decades ago on a school trip. Of course, we had covered all the popular tourist attractions back then. But this time, I was quite clear that I didn’t want to spend my time visiting parks, viewpoints and other places that would already be crowded with tourists.
So, I did my research, and one of the most interesting experiences I came across was a tribal nature walk with a local guide belonging to the Toda tribe, one of the indigenous communities of the Nilgiris. The Todas are believed to have inhabited these hills for several thousand years, with a way of life deeply connected to the land, its grasslands, forests and sacred buffaloes.
John Sullivan, the British administrator associated with establishing the British settlement at Ootacamund, now Ooty, referred to the Todas as the ‘Lords of the Soil’. After spending three hours walking through their landscape with a Toda guide, I could understand why.
This is my experience of that walk and some of the most interesting things I learnt about the community. I have tried to cover the major learnings under different pointers to make the reading easier, but this is still going to be a fairly detailed read. I would genuinely recommend reading it in full because there is so much to understand about the Todas beyond what you might see on a regular visit to Ooty.
Why my interaction with the Toda tribe was different
Over the years, I have had opportunities to interact with several tribal and indigenous communities during my travels.
Some of these include the Gond tribe in Tadoba, the Warli community in Dahanu, the Kodava community in Coorg, the Kuruba tribe in Kabini, the Badagas of the Nilgiris, and the Maasai community of the Maasai Mara in Kenya, among others.
But I have to admit that my interaction with the Todas was perhaps the most insightful, interesting and thought-provoking of them all.
It wasn’t just about learning another community’s traditions or understanding their way of life. It left me thinking about so many things. Why do we live the way we do? What have we lost in the process of modernisation? And what if our understanding of nature and our relationship with it could be entirely different?
Our guide, Thorthey, told us that he was the first person from his tribe to attend a private school. This also meant that he could speak English and introduce his community, its traditions and its natural surroundings to people who were genuinely interested in learning about them.
Something that particularly struck me throughout the three-hour walk was how he kept referring to everything as: My nature. My forest. My meadows.
He never simply referred to them as a forest or a mountain. There was a very strong sense of belonging in the way he spoke about his surroundings.
And by the end of the walk, I almost felt that the Todas and their natural surroundings were one. We, the visitors, were the outsiders temporarily stepping into their world.
1. A community that worships nature
The Toda community has a relatively small population, and its traditional belief system is closely associated with nature, sacred buffaloes and the landscape they inhabit.
Thorthey explained how they pray, and I found the gesture particularly interesting. They place one hand upright on the palm of the other, pointing towards the Nilgiris. It is a simple form of prayer, but it says so much about their relationship with the mountains.
A newborn is introduced to nature before the outside world
Thorthey shared a beautiful tradition associated with newborn babies.
Traditionally, a baby’s face is kept covered when the child is taken outside the house until the naming ceremony takes place.
What makes this particularly interesting is how the ceremony is connected to nature.
- The baby is taken outdoors in the morning, accompanied by the sound of birds.
- Nature is introduced to the baby before the child is formally introduced to the outside world.
- The naming ceremony then takes place, marking an important milestone in the child’s life.
And here is another interesting detail. The naming ceremony can sometimes take a month or even two!
Why? Because the family has to ensure that the chosen name isn’t already being used by another member of the Toda community.
It also reminded me of something I had learnt during my interaction with the Gond community in Tadoba. There, the first drop of juice from a Mahua flower is placed in a newborn’s mouth before the baby is breastfed for the first time.
Different communities, different traditions, but a similar underlying connection with nature.
2. The Todas are traditionally vegetarian
This was another big surprise for me.
Almost all the tribal communities I had interacted with previously had non-vegetarian food as part of their traditional diet. The Todas were different.
They are traditionally vegetarian, with dairy playing a particularly important role in their food and culture.
When we asked Thorthey about this, he explained that they believe animals are also an important part of the natural ecosystem. They do not believe in disturbing this balance by consuming them.
Buffaloes, in particular, are central to their way of life, not just as a source of milk but also in their religious and cultural practices.
Thorthey spoke about their everyday meals, which are fairly simple.
- Rice is a staple.
- Thick buttermilk, often mixed with fresh butter, is an important part of their meals.
3. Their settlements are spread across the meadows
As we continued walking, Thorthey showed us the traditional Toda settlements, known as munds.
Traditionally, a mund consists of a small cluster of Toda homes, often located on a meadow or mountain slope.
What I found fascinating was how scattered these settlements are.
According to Thorthey, their community has settlements spread across approximately 200 such locations (mountains). You might come across three or four houses on one mountain, walk across a few more mountains, and then find another small cluster of homes.
Today, many traditional Toda settlements have modern concrete houses alongside or in place of older architectural structures. But their relationship with the land continues.
Their traditional barrel-shaped houses
The traditional Toda houses are quite distinctive. They are barrel-shaped structures with curved roofs and a small entrance. Their architecture is unlike the houses you would typically associate with a hill station.
The Toda community is also known for its beautiful embroidered shawls, traditionally called Puthkooli. These feature striking red and black embroidery on a white woollen background and are among the most recognisable elements of Toda culture.
The colors carry their own symbolism: white represents the innocence of infancy, red signifies adolescence and youth, while black represents maturity.
4. Toda temples are very different from what we are used to seeing
Another fascinating aspect of Toda life is their temples, traditionally known as pali.
These are not conventional temples with large halls, elaborate structures or prominent idols. They are small, distinctive structures closely associated with the sacred dairy practices of the Todas.
A few interesting things I learnt:
What I found interesting was how their places of worship are not separate from their everyday lives. They are an extension of their relationship with their buffaloes, milk and the natural world.
5. How the British arrival changed the Nilgiris
This was probably one of the most interesting historical aspects of the walk.
The Nilgiris were home to indigenous communities long before the British arrived. The Todas were among them, alongside the Badagas, Kotas, Kurumbas and Irulas, each with their own distinct traditions and way of life.
In 1819, John Sullivan, then the Collector of Coimbatore, explored the Nilgiris and became instrumental in establishing the British settlement at Ootacamund.
The British were looking for a cooler hill retreat, and the Nilgiris offered exactly that.
But what they found was not an uninhabited mountain landscape. There were already communities living here, with their own social systems, customs and understanding of land.
Thorthey shared an interesting anecdote about the early encounters between the British and the Todas.
When the British asked the local people who was the richest person in the community, the Todas apparently asked how many buffaloes the British had.
When the British replied that they had none, the Todas considered them rather poor!
It is a lovely anecdote because it captures how differently the two communities measured wealth. For the British, wealth was associated with property, money and material possessions. For the Todas, the number of buffaloes one owned was an important indicator of prosperity.
But the arrival of the British also brought some major changes to the landscape.
The changing relationship with land
John Sullivan is known to have acquired land from the Todas for his residence, Stone House, and other developments. However, his relationship with the community was more complex than this alone suggests.
Sullivan also advocated for the land rights of the Todas. He recognised their longstanding connection with the Nilgiri plateau and argued that their rights over the land deserved protection. He even urged the British administration to compensate them for land occupied by European settlers.
At the same time, the colonial administration gradually transformed large parts of the Nilgiris through land policies, development and plantations.
One of the biggest ecological changes was the introduction and large-scale planting of non-native trees, particularly eucalyptus and wattle.
Why?
- They needed timber and firewood.
- They wanted to establish plantations for commercial purposes.
- They preferred a landscape that resembled the wooded hills of Europe.
But the Nilgiris were not originally the densely forested landscape that many visitors see today.
The native ecosystem consisted of extensive grasslands, particularly at higher elevations. These grasslands were important to the Todas because their sacred buffaloes depended on them for grazing.
The introduction and spread of exotic tree species gradually altered this delicate ecosystem, affecting the native grasslands and the traditional grazing landscape.
Thorthey spoke about this with a certain sadness. And then he said something that really stayed with me.
“In our tribe, we don’t say plant more trees. We simply say don’t disturb the ecosystem.”
Think about that for a moment.
We have spent years talking about planting more trees. But here was someone explaining that sometimes, conservation is not about adding more. It is about leaving the natural ecosystem alone.
6. A community that has managed to preserve its own world
Today, the Todas live in one of India’s most popular hill-station regions. Ooty receives tourists throughout the year, and the surrounding Nilgiris have seen considerable development.
Yet, the Toda community has managed to preserve a distinct way of life.
Their settlements remain scattered across the landscape, and access to certain traditional settlements and community lands is restricted. Visitors should always seek the appropriate permission rather than assuming that these are open tourist attractions.
What struck me was how content Thorthey seemed with the life they had. He spoke about their connection with the mountains, the forests and their meadows with such pride.
At one point, he said something along the lines of: This is my mountain. This is my forest. We worship nature. We are born in nature and die in nature. That is why we are happy people.
And honestly, I didn’t know what to say.
We spend so much of our lives looking for happiness, travelling to beautiful places, taking holidays, booking wellness retreats and finding ways to disconnect from our everyday routines.
Yet, here was a community whose everyday existence was so closely connected to the very things we travel to experience.
Their relationship with nature wasn’t a weekend activity or a wellness practice. It was simply their way of life.
My recommendation: Take this walk with Thorthey
If you are visiting Ooty and are interested in experiences that go beyond the usual tourist attractions, I would highly recommend taking this tribal nature walk.
The walk lasts approximately three hours, and I would suggest keeping enough time for it. Don’t rush through it, and don’t approach it as just another sightseeing activity.
What you will experience is quite different from what you might imagine when you think of Ooty.
You will realise that there is another world existing right here, in the middle of one of India’s most visited hill stations. A world with its own beliefs, traditions, and understanding of life.
For them, nature isn’t something they have to seek out to feel better. It is where they belong. And maybe, somewhere along the way, the rest of us forgot that we belong to it too.
I hope this post helped you. Do you have any questions? Please leave a comment below and I’ll try my best to help out.
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