Ooty: In the month of July, the period of the southwest monsoon, when hardly there is any good bloom of flowers in Nilgiris, just along the Nilgiris-Mysuru border in the Karnakata side there is a ravishing beauty of the bloom of sunflowers in a wide area on both sides of the Ooty-Mysuru NH.
Of course, that place along Hangala in Karnataka a few km away from the interstate border at Mudumalai tiger reserve, is making itself the garden of sunflowers that simply mesmerise the visitors. Now, the Hill residents are calling for efforts to promote sunflower cultivation in the foot hill portion of the Nilgiris along the Karnataka border.
The good bloom of sunflowers that simply turned everything yellow on the Bandipur Tiger Reserve-Hangala sector on the Karnataka side of the Ooty-Mysuru NH is indeed tempting the tourists to stop over and enjoy the scenic beauty and capture the same in their cameras.
For the farmers cultivating this flower, it is the time to reap benefits and income as it fetches a good price in the market. Chikkaraju, a farmer in Hangala, said that sunflower oil extraction unit buy the seeds of sunflower which fetches around Rs 3,500 to Rs 4,000 per quintal.
Meanwhile, K.M. Alw-az, secretary of the Nilgiris Adivasi Welfare Association, demanded action from the agriculture department for promoting sunflower cultivation in the foothills of Nilgiris along Gudalur, Masinagudi belt.
