Ooty (Udhagamandalam)

Udhagamandalam — known universally as Ooty, an anglicisation that the British struggled with from the start — was developed by the Madras Presidency in the early 19th century as a sanatorium for European troops and later as the summer capital of the Madras government. The town sits at 2,240 metres in The Nilgiris (the 'Blue Mountains', named for the kurinji flower that blooms once every twelve years and turns the hills indigo). The Government Botanical Garden, laid out in 1848, holds 1,000+ plant species across 22 hectares and a 20-million-year-old fossilised tree at its centre. The Ooty Lake — artificial, dammed in 1824 — runs boating and pedalo trips. The Doddabetta peak (2,637 m), the highest in The Nilgiris, gives a panorama that on clear days reaches the Mysore plateau and Coimbatore plains. The Nilgiri Mountain Railway, opened 1908, climbs from Mettupalayam to Ooty (46 km, 5 hours) on a unique rack-and-pinion system through 16 tunnels and over 250 bridges; UNESCO inscribed it in 2005 as part of 'Mountain Railways of India'. The hill town inspired a generation of Tamil cinema (the heritage stations and tea estates are a fixture of song-and-dance sequences) and its tea-and-eucalyptus aesthetic remains the template for southern Indian honeymoon destinations. The Annual Flower Show (May) and Tea-and-Tourism Festival (January) draw the largest crowds. Avoid the monsoon season (June–August). Coonoor, 19 km below, is quieter and cheaper if Ooty itself is overwhelming.