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Ooty short for Ootacamund
pronunciation (the official name is
Udhagamandalam sometimes abbreviated to
Udhagai , is a city, a municipality and the district
capital of the Nilgiris district in the South Indian
state of Tamil Nadu. Ootacamund is a popular hill
station located in the Nilgiri Hills. 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. Another likely origin
of the stem of the name comes from the local
language Tamil where "Otta-Cal" literally means
"Single Stone". This is perhaps a reference to a
sacred stone revered by the local Toda people.
Udhagamandalam is a more recent official Tamil name
for the town. Ooty stands at an approximate height
of 7,440 feet above sea level.
Palace Of Interest
Ketti
The valley is the last major valley en route to Ooty
along the Ooty-Coonoor highway. It is very scenic
and sports a variety of flora. However, due to the
extensive development of the valley in the recent
years, the fauna present here has dwindled to a
select few. There have been sightings of boars,
highly rare instances of tigers and elephants,
though.
Mukurthi National Park
Mukurthi National Park is a national park located in
the state of Tamil Nadu in India. Location is in the
south-eastern corner of the Nilgiris Plateau close
to Ooty.Situated along Western Ghats, it is home to
an array of endangered wildlife, including Royal
Bengal Tiger and Asian Elephant. But its main
attraction is the Nilgiri Thar (Nilgiritragus
hylocrius). In fact the park was previously known as
Nilgiri Thar National Park. The park is a part of
Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, India's first Biosphere
ReserveThe peaks of this park straddle the
well-known Silent Valley National Park of Kerala.
Notable among them is Mukurthi peak, which stands
about 8380 feet above the sea.
Government Botanical
Gardens
The Government Botanical Gardens at Ootacamund,
Tamilnadu state, India, was laid out in 1847. The
Gardens, divided into several sections, cover an
area of around 22 hectares, and lie on the lower
slopes of the Doddabetta peak. The garden has a
terraced layout.This botanical garden was created by
John Sullivan, Collector of the district of
Coimbatore in 1819.
Hill station
A Hill Station is a term commonly used for to refer
to a town usually at somewhat higher elevations in
the Indian Subcontinent. The term has been used
elsewhere in colonial Asia (rarely in Africa), where
towns have been founded by European colonial rulers
as refuges from the summer heat. In the Indian
context most hill stations are at an altitude of
approximately between 1000 and 2500 metres (3,500 -
7,500 feet); very few are outside this range.
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