After this date there on to have been numerous and insistent requests for and on the western slopes where lay, according to a forest Department report, “some very fine plateaus of superb shoal forest, admirably adapted for the cultivation of coffee”, but it was not until 1876 that the Board of Revenue acceded to these requests, and it was 1897before there came to these western slopes the firs on the planters who were to prove themselves the pioneers of the Anamallais. Among them two names stand out - those of Mr. G.A.Marsh (better known as “Garver” Marsh, and regarded by many as the Father of the Anamallais) Mr. G. R. T, Congreve, whose active interest in the affairs of the district was to continue unabated until the time of his retiral in 1945.

Mr. Loam, Executive Engineer, Public Works Department was another outstanding personality in the early history, because of his excellent work in surveying not only the ghat road, but a circular road within the district, as well as many cart roads and bridle paths still in daily use. With Mr. Loam surveying, and "Carver" Marsh in charge of construction, the ghat road into the district was   completed in 1903, and al­though the P. W, D., and later the Highways Depart­ment, have gradually widened   b is and made it into the splendid road it now is, me of the original revet­ments are still standing, and the trace remains practi­cally unaltered.
In spite of shortage-originally non-existence-of labour, difficulty of transport, heavy rains, millions of leeches, and the thousand natural causes that the planter is heir to, 50 acres were planted up in that first monsoon, and by 1900 a total of 2,543 acres was under cultivation, principally in coffee, but with a small acreage in tea and cardamoms. The planters who carried -out this, and subsequent, opening-up are too numerous to mention individually, but one must re­member that the economic success of the whole venture depended largely on the foresight enterprise and sheer hard work of these men.
It was at this time the Government on the advice of the Conservator of Forests, decided not to lease out any more land for planting as, considered from a reve­nue point of view, it was, preferable to keep the hills under forest. It is interesting to note that the then Conservator of Forests, in a letter to Government, doubted if coffee would ever age a permanent crop and forecast that “once the humus was washed off the top soil, the land would be handed back to Government as washed-out rocky hillside”. that he was a poor prophet is poved by the condition of the coffee trees that still flourish in the Anamallais, fifty years after this dreary prognostication.

During the first few years of the Twentieth Century, opening continued of the land already grantee coffee, cardamoms, tea, cinchona and some rubber being planted. Rubber did not prove to be a successful crop in the Anamallais and was later abandoned, while cinchona growing is now almost entirely confined to Government Cinchona Plantations.
It looked at this time as through the Anamallais would never be anything but a small isolated district. However, in 1911 Government again made land available for planting, and then began the real development of the district. Many new estates were opened, and be 1916 there were 13, 317 acres under cultivation on twenty-one estates. Expansion continued until today the total acreage is 36, 937 on thirty-eight estates, making the Anamallais the largest planting district in South India. The above figures exclude Government Cinchona Plantations, whose cultivation extends to about 3,130 acres.
Needless to say, many difficulties had to be overcome, and many obstacles surmounted before the present acreage was planted.
A sore trial to planters and labour in the early days was malaria. As opening increased the incidence of malaria also increased, and it was only after several years of intensive malaria survey, and the dissecting of many thousands of mosquitoes, that the proved carrier, Anopheles fluviatilis, was isolated, a mosquito which bred under the conditions created when, through fel­ling, rivers and streams were cleared of their natural shade. Once the culprit was identified, anti-larval measures were taken and now we may say that the district is free of malaria. Credit for this happy state of affairs must be given to Dr. J. E. Measham who opened a Research Centre in the Anamallais on behalf of the Ross Institute, and who conducted, with pains­taking and scientific thoroughness, this successful survey.
In the early 1920s, with the increasing output of tea, and an increasing labour force to feed, transport to and from the district became a major problem. The solution was found in the formation of the Anamallais Ropeway Company, which constructed a ropeway from within the district to Vannanthorai, at the foot of the hills. With this ropeway, and a fleet of lorries, the Anamallais Ropeway Co,, took over transport between estates and the rail-head at Pollachi. Since its incep­tion in 1927, the Anamailais Ropeway Company has proved an unqualified success, and at the present time transports 32,000 tons of goods annually.

The bringing of electricity into the District from Pykara Hydro-Electric Plant in 1933 was another signi­ficant development. Prior to this, most factories had power plants of sorts, but when Sir Henry Howard, the Chief Electrical Engineer, to the Government of Madras persuaded a few factories to employ Pykara power, he not only ensured the immediate success of his power scheme, but introduced a source of power which has added enormously to the amenities as well as the economic development of the district.
As early as 1915 negotiations were started with the Dewan of Cochin, with a view to opening a road to the West, or to extending into the district the then existing tram way which was transporting timber from Parambikulam, a station in the foot-hills, to the West Coast. A first survey was made at that time, but there were to be several subsequent surveys, and many interviews with both Cochin and Travancore Governments, and much ink was to be spilled in over thirty years of intermittent correspondence, before a road was eventually opened in 1848 between Malakiparai Estate and Chalakudi Traffic on this alternative outlet increases every year.
In the effort improve the type of cattle on estates the Anamallai Hills Cattle Society was formed in 1932. Scindhi stud bulls were imported into the district and an Annual Cattle Show was held, with the result that now there are some fine herds of Scandhi type cattle on estates. Unfortunately overgrazing of available land is tending to have an adverse effect, and is nullifying the excellent work done by the original enthusiasts, Messrs. H. Gerry, H. W. Huttor and J. L. H. Williams.
During these years of expansion and progress the common interests of all concerned in planting in the Anamallais have been safeguarded by an organization formed in 1903. In that year at a meeting convened by Mr. G. L. Duncan, the Anamallai Planters' Association came into being, with Mr. O. A. Bannatine as first Chairman, and Mr G. A. Marsh as first Honorary Secretary. From that day on the Association has consistently proved to be a live body keenly interested in all planting problems in the district. In recent years its value and importance have increased as the impact of legislation on the planting industry has made it more than ever necessary that concerted action be on matters which concern the local planting community, and that problems of industry-wide import­ance be referred to the parent body, U.P.A.S.I.

From the A.P.A. have come several Presidents of U.P.A.S.I. namely, Mr. C. R, T. Congreve (who occu­pied the Chair on three occasions), Mr. A.G. Cotton and Mr. A.W.F. Mills, while representatives of the Association have served on the various Section Com­mittees and the Labour Department Control Com­mittee. Also, in the days of the old Madras Legislative Assembly, Mr. Congreve, Mr Reade and Mr. Gerry went to Madras as Planting Representatives.
Incidentally several other U.P.A.S.I. Presidents, Messrs. C. H. Brock, R. Fowke, J. S. B. Wallace and R. Walker, although they did not go to U.P.A.S.I. directly from the A. P. A. had planting experience in the district.
But merely to describe the economic development would be to give quite a wrong impression of the Anamallais. The pioneers, in their early struggle for a footing on these mountainous forests, and their succes­sors striving to carry on the good work and to build up a prosperous industry, still found time for the lighter side of life. In the early days there were several small clubs throughout the district, but in 1927 the present Anamallai Club was opened at Valparai. With its football and cricket ground, a not uninteresting nine-hole golf course, several tennis courts, billiard tables, library, etc., it has proved a very popular centre.
Mr. Congreve and his pioneer colleagues will long be remembered in the Anamallais with affection and regard, and this wide expanse of cultivation, increasing as it is in size and prosperity, will be a permanent memorial to all who took part in its development.

History of Valparai