Hillstation ooty

Services

State


		Introduction

		Sightseeing

		Transport

		Accommodation

		Travel Essentials

		Around Ooty (conoor)

State	Tamil Nadu

City	Ooty or Ootacamund

Airports	Coimbatore

Distance from City Centre	100 Km/ 62 Mile

Railway Junctions	Mettupalayam

Local Languages	Tamil, Hindi

Ooty Introduction

Called the 'Queen of Hill Stations' picturesque, green Udhagamandalam better known as Ooty is the most popular hill station in the South. Located in the Western ghats at a height of 2240m, Udhagamandalam is the headquarters of the Nilgiris district where the two ghats meet. Nature has been generous with this region which is by far the most beautiful in the state. Apart from coffee andtea plantations, trees like conifers, eucalyptus, pine and wattle dot the hillside in Udhagamandalam and its environs. Summer temperature is rarely higher than 25°c with a minimum of 10°c and winter is are distinctly cooler with a high of 21°c and a low 5°c. Curiously enough, this slice of paradise remained unknown to the great southern dynasties and it took the British to discover it in the early 1800s. They were however, not the first inhabitants of this land as a tribe called Todas had been living there long before the British came, claiming that the Nilgiris had been their home since time immemorial. But the credit for modernising Udhagamandalam and making it accessible goes to the British who constructed the first railway line in the area and made it the summer capital of the Madras Presidency.

About Udhagamandalam : Settlement in Udhagamandalam began in 1822 with the construction of the Stone House by John Sullivan, the then Collector of Coimbatore. The bungalow which is locally called Kal Bangla is one of the landmarks of Udhagamandalam and is now the Chamber of the Principal of the Government Arts College. Not many years after the construction of the Stone House, several other English cottages with pretty gardens, large bungalows of top officials in the Government are built.

Even today the atmosphere of the Raj lingers in places like the Club where snooker was invented by a subaltern named Neville Chamberlain, the Nilgiri Library with its rare and valuable collection of books on Udhagamandalam and St.Stephen's Church which was Udhagamandalam's first church.

The cemetery near the church has the oldest British tombstones in the town and include those of John Sullivan's wife and daughter among other prominent personalities.

South Indian Tea has gained recognition far and wide. India is the fifth largest tea producing belt in the world after China. In 1991, South India exported 50 million kg to over 30 countries. Tea and Tourism Festival is celebrated in the Nilgiris Jointly by the Department of Tourism, Government of Tamil Nadu and Ministry of Tourism, Government of Tamil Nadu and Ministry of Tourism, Government of India in every January/February. Cultural programmes, visits to Tea Estates and factories, fun and frolic etc., mark this celebrations. Come to Nilgiris, during this festival, when tea lovers from all over the world converge. An occasion not to be missed.