subject: Ooty: The True Summer Capital [print this page] The town of Ooty is a municipality and also the capital of the Nilgiri district in Tamil Nadu, a South Indian state. The name of the district makes it quite clear that the Nilgiri Hills are a part of this district. On the top of the Nilgiri Hills, around 80 kilometers away from the city of Coimbatore, lies the hill station of Ooty. Udhagamandalam, Udhagai and Ootacamund are nicknames that are frequently used for this region. Ootacamund is often used in its shortened form, Ooty. In historical times, Ooty was occupied and inhabited by people belonging to the Toda tribe. These tribes had lived peacefully in this region and the economy thrived on cultivation of rice and some specialized professions. Today, the main earning of the region comes from agriculture, manufacturing of medicines and photographic films and of course, tourism. The peaceful weather and lovely climate makes it the perfect getaway destination for tourists. Since quite some time now, Ooty has been well known throughout the world for it high quality education imparting institutes and organizations. From the Todas, the region passes on into the hands of the British, under whom it remained till the attainment of education. Ooty is known as The Queen of Hill Stations and was the summer capital of the British during their rule.
There have been speculations about how the region got its name. The name Wotokymund was mentioned for the name of the place by an anonymous correspondent in a letter written to the Madras Gazette in the year 1821. Another explanation goes- the latter part of the name came from the local language in which it means toda village. Otha-Cal in the local language means Single Stone and it is already a known fact that the Todas used to worship the sacred stone. This might be a likely origin of the places name. It might also be that the name Udhagamandalam was probably shortened to Ootacamund, which got anglicized to Ooty with time.
A beautiful period of time in Ooty is when the flower kurunji which covers the entire mountain ranges blooms. This is the time when the mountain looks like a blue paradise and maybe that is why Nilgiri Hills is called The Blue Mountains. But these lovely flowers bloom once in twelve years and the last time these blossomed was in 2006. According to history, some other tribes also coexisted along with the Todas. The historian Frederick Price in Ootacamund, A History, states very clearly that Old Ooty was initially occupied by Todas and later Governor of Coimbatore, John Sullivan took control of the region. The Governor further developed the region and encouraged the cultivation of tea and planting of chinchona and teaktrees.
