About Opentopia
Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Ootacamund

Encyclopedia : O : OO : OOT : Ootacamund

 

Tea gardens in Ooty
Enlarge
Tea gardens in Ooty

Tea gardens in Ooty
Enlarge
Tea gardens in Ooty

Ooty [pronunciation] ([Media helphelp]·[info]), short for Ootacamund [pronunciation] ([Media helphelp]·[info]) (the official name is Udagamandalam), is a popular hill station located in the Nilgiri Hills of Tamil Nadu State, Southern India. The origin of the name Ootacamund is obscure, but "mund" is the Badaga word for a Toda village, and it is probably a corruption of the Badaga name for the central region of the Nilgiri Plateau. Sir Frederick Price Ootacamund, A History (Madras: Govt. Press) 1908 pp14-15 Udagamandalam is a more recent official Tamil name for the town. Ooty stands at an approximate height of 7,440 feet (2,268 metres) above sea level.

Contents

History

The Nilgiri Hills were part of Hoysala empire under king Vishnuvardhana in the 12th century. It then became part of the Mysore of Tipu Sultan who later surrendered it to the British in the 18th century.

John Sullivan, the British governor of neighboring Coimbatore province, liked the climate of this forested land, and occupied it by taking land from the native tribes (Toda, Irumba and Badaga); often buying up many square kilometres in a day for the price of a few meals.

The hills were developed rapidly under the British Raj because they were almost entirely owned by private British citizens, unlike the rest of India. Ooty served as the summer capital of the Madras Presidency, and had winding hill roads and a complicated rack-and-pinion railway system built by influential and enterprising British citizens with venture capital from the Madras government.

Tourism

Located in the mountainous range called the Blue Mountains or Nilgiris, Ooty draws a very large number of tourists every year. The weather is quite pleasant at a mean of 15 to 20 °C year round, dropping to lows of 0 °C during winter.

The hill town suffers from rampant commercialization and erosion of natural resources. The tourism industry has placed an enormous strain on the natural resources resulting in pollution, water shortage and bad roads.The number of visitors that was about 16.81 lakhs in 2001 had gone up to 17.25 lakhs in 2005. In between in 2003 it had even shot up to 18.34 lakhs

The landscape is quite unlike the rest of India, marked by rolling hills covered with dense vegetation, smaller hills and plateaus covered with tea gardens, and eucalyptus trees. Many portions of the hills are preserved as natural reserve forests, and special permits are needed to camp in noncamp sites. Ooty is not the destination in itself, as much as it is the focal point of attraction. Auto touring the surrounding country side is certainly a must do.

The hilly region also houses smaller towns like Coonoor and Kotagiri. These towns are less than an hour's drive away from Ooty and enjoy the same natural climes, but have fewer tourists and cheaper prices.

Places to Visit

The 55 Acre Botanical Garden was founded by John Sullivan, known to have first "discovered" Ooty and built his summer dwelling over in Ooty. The original purpose of the "Botanical Gardens" was purely academic in nature to promote and study the various flora in and around Nilgiris. Now, it is open to the public as a park that can be enjoyed by visitors. Botanical Gardens is also a heaven for bird watcher's where a variety of birds, both seasonal and local dwelling can be sighted.In the past it has been subjected to unauthorised entry and thus a compound would also be erected as part of the facelift which shall be given to the garden,work commencing from July 2006

The Assistant Director of Horticulture is also hopeful that the 160 year old garden which was initially a vegetable garden would be addded in the list of World Heritage site 

Ooty Railway station offers an unique glimpse of the british raj built railways. Even after over one hundred years, the railways have been maintained as was in the earlier times - except that one of the rail engines is replaced with a diesel engine instead of steam operated engine.
It is heard that Ooty was once covered completely by this big lake. It is also heard from the locals that this lake was reduced in its area as time passed by to build the Ooty town in itself, though it is tough to really verify these facts.


Nearby Places



Getting there



By plane


The Coimbatore airport is the closest to the hills at about 3 hours by road. There are flights into Coimbatore from most parts of India. The Mysore airport is about 5 hours away from Ooty by road, and lies to the North of Ooty. The road trip is quite scenic from either airport.



By train


Ooty is connected to Chennai (formally Madras) by a nightly train. The Nilgiri Express leaves from Chennai at night, and reaches Mettupalayam, a small town at the foothills of the Blue Mountains early the next morning. The Nilgiri Mountain Railway, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is an experience that is more than just a mode of transport as the journey through the scenic valley and hills make it breathtaking. A through ticket from Madras to Ooty will ensure a place on the smaller train, although many prefer the faster route of taking a cab or a bus from Mettupalayam. There are other trains from Chennai to Coimbatore.


Mettupalayam can prove to be a bottleneck during the peak season of April-June.




By road


The Nilgiris (the collective hill range, also called the Blue Mountains), is in the state of Tamil Nadu, but it is quite near the borders of neighboring states Karnataka and Kerala. The hills consequently can be reached from within Tamil Nadu by travelling up a heavily forested winding road (also called a ghat road), with many sharp hair-pin beds. The road trip from any state is quite scenic, although the Coimbatore-Mettupalayam-Coonoor-Ooty road (i.e. the Tamil Nadu route) is the most travelled and well maintained. The road from Mysore is arguably the most scenic with a long stretch that runs through the Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary, and if travelling in the early mornings or late evenings, you definitely will spot wildlife feeding along the road, even spot the odd carnivore. There are majestic stands of Eucalyptus amidst well tended tea estates as you near Gudalur, and then you drive past the Pykara Dam and waterfalls. All roads to the Nilgiri hills are toll roads, although the tolls are quite nominal.


There are buses and shared taxi vans that can be boarded from most parts of India to Ooty.


The journey can be continued from Coimbatore by road, a 4 hour journey.



Educational Institutions


Schools



Colleges



References






External links

This is the Kendriya Vidyalaya (or the Central School) provding education to hundreds of school children, especially for the central government and public sector employees of Hindustan Photo Films (HPF)












 




From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.















Search Titles









0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?
















E-mail this article to:



Personal Message: