The summer festival season has choked the roads to Doddabetta Peak once again, causing huge traffic snarls that are affecting the everyday lives of local residents, as well as inconveniencing tourists.
Based on some estimates, the huge influx of tourists to one of the most visited tourist hotspots in the district leads to anywhere between 300-500 vehicles becoming stuck along the road between the Doddabetta Peak to the Doddabetta Junction at any time, with an equally large number of vehicles also waiting to enter the reserved forest for a further kilometer till the Tea Factory in Mel Kodappamund.
S. Chandran, a Kotagiri resident, said that locals usually do not visit Udhagamandalam town during the summer festival season due to the huge crowds and traffic snarls at Doddabetta. “However, for emergencies, such as to visit the Government Medical College and Hospital, people have to use the route,” he said.
Tourists waiting to access the peak said that they had been stuck in traffic for over three hours due to the long queues on Sunday (May 17, 2026). “We could not even turn around as we got stuck with traffic on both sides of the road and wasted an entire day at just one location,” said R. Gomes, a visitor from Kerala.
N. Sadiq Ali, Founder of the Wildlife and Nature Conservation Trust (WNCT) said that the traffic snarls also impacted wildlife and ecology in the ecologically sensitive region. “The area is home to a large amount of endemic flora, while recently, tigers, sloth bears and even elephants have begun utilising the forest. The long queues of cars not only severely increases air pollution, but also stresses wildlife in the area,” said Mr. Sadiq, calling on the forest department to come up with strategies to curtail traffic to the area.
The Nilgiris district police tried to implement curbs to ease traffic flow to the peak, by forcing visitors to take shuttle buses to the peak from the Doddabetta Junction on Saturday (May 16, 2026). However, the Eco-Development Committee, which manages the entry to the peak, objected to the restrictions as they earn income from tickets purchased for each vehicle that enters the area, leading to the trial having to be prematurely ended.
Conservationists called on the forest department to implement the measures, adding that reinitiating the curbs to the location by restricting entry for private vehicles temporarily will solve a number of problems, both for wildlife as well as tourists and residents using the road.
Published - May 17, 2026 02:51 pm IST
Source: The Hindu - India News
