History of Ooty

 
Once referred as ‘Queen of Hills’ by Pt Jawaharlal Nehru, Ooty is a famous hill town in the state of Tamil Nadu, India.  Udagamandalam is the official name of this beautiful hill town of Ooty. It is located deep in the famous Nilgiri Hills which literally mean the Blue Mountains. Ooty does not have any historical records proving that it was the part of any kingdom. 
Ooty was earlier a tribal land and was mainly inhabited by the Todas community along with other tribes. Todas handed over the land to John Sulliavan who was then serving as the Governor of Coimbatore under the British rule in India. John Sulliavan was highly impressed by the beauty of the land and cooperative nature of the tribal people. It was he who developed the town and planted tea, chinchona and teak trees on large scale there. John Sullivan also worked tirelessly to secure the land rights and conserve the cultural identity of the tribal people. He was later punished for that by the British authority. Thereafter the hill town of Ooty was made the summer capital of the Madras presidency. It became a popular weekend spot and was visited by many British officers. Ooty was under the rule of British until India got independence in 1947. Then  in 1956 it was incorporated in Tamil Nadu state.  Presently hill town of Ooty is major tourist destination attracting thousands of people from across the country.