Given its salubrious year-round climate, neat and orderly coffee plantations and scenic country vistas, Coorg has emerged as a high-potential tourism destination Set under the thinning canopy of the Western Ghats in the south-west of Karnataka (pop. 63 million), Coorg is the heart of India’s coffee country. During high season (April-June), the entire district is enveloped in aroma of the roasted bean, the world’s most heavily traded commodity after crude oil. With its panoramic vistas, green valleys, thick forest cover, rolling hills and dales, Coorg is known as the Scotland of India for its wet and windy climate. Though one of Karnataka’s 31 districts, Coorg (pop. 596,718) covers a land area of 4,102 sq. km —four times larger than Hong Kong and seven times the area of Singapore, most of it under tree cover because unlike tea plants, the coffee bush requires shade. In a global agri-industry dominated by Brazil which produces 40 percent (3.5 million tonnes) of the world’s coffee output annually (cf. India’s 349,000 tonnes), India is acknowledged as the producer of finest mild coffees. With their tropical climate, high altitude (3,500 ft), abundant rainfall and fertile soil, Coorg and the neighboring Chikkmagaluru districts in Karnataka have consistently produced and exported high quality coffee for over 150 years. The coffee output of these two districts accounts for 70 percent of the total coffee produced in the country. In particular Coorg coffee is valued for its blue colour, clean beans and fine liquoring qualities and is in high demand in international markets (nearly 80 percent of the district’s coffee production is exported). The numerous coffee estates here are globally renowned for their arabica and robusta coffee beans which are blended to suit national and individual palates. In March and April — coffee blossom time in Coorg — the snow-white flowers of the coffee bush waft a heady fragrance and present unforgettable vistas to visitors. When blossoms transform into berries, the bushes are cropped. The cherry-red fruit is pulped, seeds separated, dried and sent for curing. A holiday on a coffee plantation can provide the visitor a heady first-hand education experience of the entire process of coffee production from harvest to shop shelf. But there’s more in Coorg or Kodagu (the name of the district in Kannada, the official language of Karnataka). This district is also one of the world’s largest producers of pepper, cardamom, and honey. Not much is known about the early history of Coorg. Recorded history is available only from 1600 AD onwards when Kodava rajas ruled over the region and established their capital at Mercara by constructing a mud-walled fort. The martial Kodavas confronted Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan who ruled the Mysore region in the 18th century by way of sporadic rebellions and violent insurrections. But in 1785, Tipu’s large army marched into Kodagu and devastated the kingdom. Fourteen years later, with the help of the British who defeated Tipu Sultan following the historic siege of Srirangapatna in 1799, Coorg regained independence and…
