Kumily - between tea plantages and the rain forrest

A little sentimental I left behind Alleppey and took the morning bus to Kumily, a 5 hour ride over pumpy roads winding up into the hills, with branches occasionally reaching into the bus without window-screens slapping faces of inattentive or sleeping passengers. Having reached Kumily I found the place my Tirolean friends had recommended, a modest house with a few rooms for rental just next to the forrest. Luckily the owner warned me about the monkeys climbing around the balcony, playing with what ever they can find and even entering rooms in search of food or interesting items to play with.
As I got the initial impression that this village was pretty much focused on tourism only with not much else to do or see than tea-plantations, spice gardens and the national reserve, I decided to jump right into it in order to move on after 2 days. By ricksha I went to see a tea plantation, where a guide repeated his every-day sermon to a small group of travelers, trying to practice his French and English rather than actually giving useful information and actually showing the processes involved in the fabrication of tea. How ever, I learned that all the different types of black tea in the world apparently developed from only two species and I know now how to make Chai ;)
After a short stop at a spice garden where another guide pressed the play-button on his forehead in order to reproduce his mental tape about spices. Reminded of my job as a fundraiser some years ago I tried my best to get the poor man off his track by asking him things which didn't have anything to do with spices. In the evening I visited a Kalari-show -- martial art -- longing to got off the tourist path again and experience some more authentic India.
The next day at the "Periyar Tiger Reserve" I past with mixed feelings as well. In my romantic dreams I had expected tense rain forest, as far as my eye could see, many different kinds of animals crossing my way and an experience adjusted to the wishes and needs of the small group doing the safari. When the 5 of us entered the reserve we could see wide deserted hills where one day must have been a rain forest. I guess that most of the animals were not very keen on seeing us noisy, civilized and maybe degenerated humans and the reserve guide did not seem to care much about his job either, wearing a shiny red t-shirt and talking on the mobile phone in the middle of the jungle. In the end we saw a black giant squirrel, a few black macacs (monkeys) and some bisons from far fleeing into the shelter of the woods. I imagine that the only way to actually see and observe wild animals is far off the tourist-paths, with a zoologist or alone with a very good tele-objective waiting for the wild creatures to show up at a water place or crossing a lightning in the forest.
After concluding the 6 hour trek on small paths over hills and valleys I was wondering in what a bad condition our planet must be, when even in nature reserves the human imprint is omnipresent. Overpopulation, illegal hunting and corruption are stronger than the attempts of several programs to actually safe endangered species and their habitat, for instance there exist some tiger-reserves in India where not a single tiger has been spotted in many years…
Sorry if I sound a bit dark today, but I was not able to find a funny twist this time ;) Big hug to all of you.