The Nilgiri mountain range in south India is considered unique by anthropologists, geologists, climatologists, botanists as well as tourists. It has remained a subject of constant study and research over the last two centuries. Man-nature balance had continued undisturbed in the Nilgiris for thousands of years until the early 19th century when it became a British colony attracting, in due course, various developmental activities. Subsequently, the Nilgiris and its popular hill stations emerged as favourite places for rest and recuperation, game and for raising commercial plantations. In the process, the traditional indigenous crops were replaced by “English” vegetables and then natural forests gave way to commercial plantations of coffee, tea and other exoticspecies of trees. Land use is the term that is used to describe human uses of the land, or immediate actions modifying or converting land cover. It includes such broad categories as human settlements, protected areas and agriculture. Within those broad categories are more refined categories, such as urban and rural settlements, irrigated and rainfed fields, national parks and forest reserves, and transportation and other infrastructure. Land cover refers to the natural vegetative cover types that characterize a particular area.
