Elephant Proof Treehouse Cafe

Elephant Proof Treehouse Cafe

(Article repost from NewKerala.com)

Jumbo frightened Kerala woman sells tea from a tree

Wayanad (Kerala), July 20 : For many people the idea of living atop a tree may sound adventurous, but for a 50-year-old woman it was compulsion.

Nibisha, who runs a teashop on the national highway that passes through the Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala, was driven up a tree by rampaging wild elephants.

Nibisha has been living in a tree house built at a height of over 30 feet for the past twenty years.

After elephants in the forest damaged her shop a couple of times, forest officials advised her to make a house on a tree to avoid further attacks by the jumbos.

Tribals helped her to build the tree house, using bamboo, grass and wood.

Babu, a lorry driver, said that the treetop ta joint was a popular one, and added that he was yet to see another like it in any other state.

Nibisha says she used the earnings from the tea shop to bring up her three children.

Although her children are now well settled and have asked her to live with them, Nibisha refuses to leave her teashop and tree house.

---