This most beautiful scene takes place at Vanjangi, a place about 3,300 feet above mean sea level (MSL) near Paderu in the
People affectionately call the newly discovered hill station ‘
Delighted to see the breathtaking beauty of nature, Ms. Meghana, a 19-year-old psychology student, captured photos and videos from the top of Vanjangi Hill and shared them with her friends via social media groups.
“Most of my friends wondered if it was the beach. Nowhere have I seen the clouds be so dense and stagnant. I have no idea how to compare the beauty of the place.” , she adds.
This particular peak of Vanjangi was a little-known tribal hamlet with only six families of the same surname, Marri, who have been staying here for a long time. “We don’t know when this became a habitat for our predecessors. But we have lived here for generations,” said Rama Rao, the village elder.
“Previously we would see a handful of people going up to the top of the hill. Sometimes we go to collect firewood. Some shepherds go a certain distance to graze their sheep and cattle. Suddenly people are pouring in. to this place by the thousands, ”said Gammelavalasa Satish, a relative of the Marri family from another village. Satish’s entrepreneur didn’t take the time to wake up to the growing demand for minimal necessities like tea and snacks. He and a few of his cousins started selling tea, idli and noodles. “Noodles are not our food. But a lot of people ask for them. So we learned how to prepare them,” adds her cousin.
Two other young people from the tribe started selling packets of cookies and snacks.
Vanjangi is fast becoming the favorite destination for nature lovers. The cars start to take a detour to the left on the Paderu – Madugula road from 4 am. There is no government intervention yet. People who have difficulty finding the route wait for other vehicles to arrive. “From 4 am to 6 am, we see dozens of cars heading up the hill,” said Raj Kumar, a resident of the Paderu-Vanjangi road and a volunteer from Chaitanya Shravanti, a local NGO working on tribal rights and empowerment.
Some people prefer to stay here all night so they don’t miss the sunrise. “We start serving tea at 4 am to those sleeping in tents here. We end at 9 am as people disappear by then,” Satish said.
Located about 60 km from Vanjangi, Lambasingi is another cool hill station (with temperatures often dropping to two or one degree Celsius in winter) that has become popular over the past 15 years. It attracts huge crowds every year in winter. Also this year, the Covid-19 pandemic did not deter tourists from flocking to Lambasingi. The Araku Valley has been popular for decades, attracting tourists in large numbers.
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