Tamil Nadu: Discovering the Magical Nilgiris

The lush, dreamy environs of the Nilgiris—or the ‘Blue Mountains’—have made these hill ranges of Tamil Nadu extremely popular with travellers seeking solace and rest for a little while in the lap of nature. Besides peerless scenic beauty, the Nilgiris also offer a deep immersion into local cultures, customs and cuisines. It’s a perfect holiday for the family, with something for everyone, from heritage to adventure, nature, culture—and even a chocolate museum!

The Nilgiris is one of India’s oldest mountain ranges, forming part of the Western Ghats and located at the tri-junction of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. Ooty is the region’s primary tourist hub, and serves as the perfect base from which to explore the Nilgiris—but there’s much to see and do on your way to Ooty as well. Coonoor, 20 kms from Ooty and Kotagiri, 29 kms from Ooty, also serve as excellent bases for your dream holiday in the Nilgiris.

If you’re flying in, the closest airport is at Coimbatore, 85 kms from Ooty. Coimbatore Railway Station offers excellent connectivity as well. From there head to Mettupalayam, where you can hop on to the Nilgiri Mountain Railway for the train ride of a lifetime. This metre-gauge railway with a UNESCO World Heritage tag and charming, old-world compartments, which is popularly referred to as the Ooty Toy Train, has been chugging since 1908 and runs from Mettupalayam in the plains all the way up to Ooty, with Coonoor, Ketti, and Lovedale being some important stops on the route. And if you’re planning a road trip all the way, the excellent roads make it an absolute breeze.

Once you’re in Ooty, the ‘Queen of the Hills’, settle down and begin exploring the region. The Nilgiris is a wonderland, gifted every bounty by Mother Nature, with rolling grasslands, dense sholas, waterfalls, streams, lakes, vast expanses of tea plantations, spectacular viewpoints, fabulous trekking trails, spellbinding sunrises and sunsets, misty mornings and star-studded nights.

While destinations like Ooty and Coonoor are well known, they have lesser-known aspects which you will enjoy exploring. And, of course, the Nilgiris has many offbeat and lesser-known spots to offer.

One of these destinations, Ullada village near Ooty, was recently recognized by the Government of India as the Best Tourism Village 2023 in the Bronze Category. The charming village is home to the indigenous Badaga community who are primarily agriculturists and speak their own language. The village is popular with visitors for its immersive tribal tourism experiences, making it a unique destination in the region. The Badaga community dance in traditional attire attracts a lot of tourists and is performed during festivals, like the ‘Kundam’ in December which is held at the Amman Temple in the village. Another major festival, Hethi Habba, is also celebrated in December.

The village, where you can observe the traditional way of life of the Badagas and their agricultural practices, is well connected, being close to the Ketti railway station and on the Ooty-Coonoor Road, and serves as the gateway to the Ketti Valley, one of the largest gorges in the world. The Ketti Valley Point offers stunning views of the valley and you can take a closer look with the telescopes at hand.

At Ullada you will also get a chance to sample some lip-smacking Badaga cuisine. The Badagas love cooking with millets, and use a wide variety of them in their food. Ragi mudde and samba dosa are two popular dishes made with millets. Their popular dishes include the avaray gaasuu dakka, a bean and potato curry and Badaguru koi udakka, a chicken curry. Hatchike is an iconic Badaga dessert made from millets.

Another fascinating indigenous community of the Nilgiris are the Todas. A vegetarian pastoral tribe, the Todas use buffalo milk extensively, and their lives revolve around cattle herding and dairy work. They reside in small hamlets called munds. Their huts, called dogles, are built of bamboo and rattan in an oval shape with a sliding door.

Nilgiris offers a deep immersion into local cultures, customs and cuisines. It’s a perfect holiday for the family, with something for everyone, from heritage to adventure, nature, culture – and even a chocolate museum!

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A visit to the Toda community and their temple—where buffalo milk, which they consider sacred, is kept—will be a fascinating experience for you.And that’s not all. The Todas are also known for their fine textiles and handicrafts, and their distinctive embroidery technique was awarded the GI tag 10 years ago. The Todas refer to this traditional embroidery as pohor. It is used extensively in the traditional shawl called putukuli that they wear on special occasions. The embroidery isdone by Toda women and has distinctive red and black thread work in geometric patterns on unbleached white cotton fabric. The main motif is the buffalo, an animal they revere and worship, besides representations of nature like flowers, mountains, and so on. You’ll definitely want to purchase a shawl or some other handicraft from the Todas who have now organised themselves into a cooperative in order to market their products better.

Ooty offers so many interesting attractions and activities that you should set aside a day or two—depending on the pace you want to set—to explore this charming hill town. It is only fitting to commence your tour with a visit to the John Sullivan Memorial, the very place where it all began. This is the first house that John Sullivan, collector of Coimbatore and founder of Ooty, built in these hills. Also called Sullivan’s Bungalow, the modest but charming building, located in the village of Kannerimukku near Kotagiri, is painted in a striking red colour. It is also home to the Nilgiri History Museum.

The Botancial Garden lies on the lower slopes of Doddabetta Peak and boasts around 1,000 species laid out in terraces. Don’t miss the Conservatory and the 20-million-year old fossil tree trunk on display

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On the way to Kotagiri, you will also encounter Doddabetta Peak—the highest peak in the Nilgiris—and the Doddabetta Tea Factory. There is road access to the summit, so you can visit it easily. There’s an observatory at the top with telescopes to take in the panoramic view. Back in Ooty, do take a peek at Stone House, also built by Sullivan, who started constructing it in 1822. It’s the first house in Ooty town. Not only is it still standing, the building is in active use and serves as the residence of the Principal of the Government Arts College, Ooty.

Ooty’s salubrious climate has made it a gardener’s delight. Two noteworthy gardens must be on your itinerary—the Rose Garden on the slopes of Elk Hill and the Government Botanical Garden, which was laid out in 1848. The Botancial Garden lies on the lower slopes of Doddabetta Peak and boasts around 1,000 species laid out in terraces. Don’t miss the Conservatory and the 20-million-year old fossil tree trunk on display.

How about a spot of boating after this? TTDC Boathouse offers a variety of recreational boating options on the Ooty Lake that John Sullivan created. You can choose between pedal boats, row boats and motor boats. While motor boat rides are 20 minutes long, the other boat rides are for half an hour. You can also head 20 kilometres out of town to the scenic Pykara Lake set inside a dense forest. The pristine waterbody is a sheer joy to behold. TTDC runs a Boathouse here as well. Besides boating facilities, the Boathouse also has an excellent restaurant. In fact, Ooty has several excellent restaurants, serving a variety of Indian and international cuisines, so good food is never in short supply.

And neither is excellent chocolate. The M&N Chocolate Museum on the Ooty-Mysore Road, said to be India’s first, is a great place to learn all about the intriguing process of chocolate making as well as handcraft your own chocolate—and, of course, shop for some. The Museum is also in the Limca Book of Records for making India’s longest chocolate bar, which was a whopping 18 metres in length!

You should next visit the Tribal Museum, which is located within the Tribal Research Centre campus in Ooty. You’ll have a fascinating time here looking at all the interesting artifacts on display. These include traditional ornaments, weapons, utensils, basketry, pottery, and so on from about 36 different tribal ethnic communities of Tamil Nadu. There are tribal model huts as well. Scenic eco-tourism spots like Emerald Lake and Avalanche Lake are near the Tribal Museum, so you can even plan a nice picnic. These are scenic spots tucked away from the busy main town and you should certainly spend some tranquil moments here.

Set aside an entire morning to visit Gudalur, 50 kms from Ooty. Home to countless acres of tea and coffee plantations as far as the eye can see, Gudalur is a sight to behold. While here you must make a visit to the hilltop Santhana Malai Murugan Temple in O’ Valley.

If you enjoy walking, you will love Cairn Hills, for which you do need to set aside half a day if not an Memorialentire day. This eco-tourism destination near Ooty on Avalanche Road is the perfect spot for some soulful trekking. A 168-hectare forest, it was developed by the British in the 1860s as an eco-tourism centre, making it one of the oldest converted forests in the Western Ghats. The forest here has some of the oldest cypress trees in the Nilgiris. Once a burial site for the tribals, the spot gets its name from the cairns or memorial stone heaps which used to be placed by the Todas and Kurumbas here.

TTDC Boathouse offers a variety of recreational boating options on the Ooty Lake that John Sullivan created.

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There’s also an orchidarium, an interpretation centre and a souvenir shop. There is a hanging bridge which is a huge hit with kids but adults enjoy it equally. There’s a watchtower with enchanting views of the surrounding mountains and valleys. Private jeep safaris are also available.

Cairn Hills is also a paradise for birdwatchers with species like Indian Hornbill, Malabar Pied Hornbill, Crested Serpent Eagle, Black and OrangeFlycatcher, Amur Falcon and White Throated Kingfisher. If you’re lucky, you might even spot a gaur or a sambar deer. If you want to experience Cairn Hills to the fullest, stay at one of the eco-friendly tourist huts here.

Once you’ve taken in the delights of Ooty and its surrounding areas, the next part of your trip should be devoted to venturing further afield and exploring the stunning biodiversity of the Nilgiris. Isn’t it amazing that you are in the middle of a UNESCO World Heritage Site? Yes, apart from the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, the other UNESCO site here is the Western Ghats, of which the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve—a biodiversity hotspot—is a part. The two major national parks in the Nilgiris are Mudumalai National Park, 40 kilometres from Ooty, and Mukurthi National Park, which is a three-hour drive from here.

With plenty of scenic spots, adventurous safaris and nature camps, the Mudumalai National Park is a visitor’s paradise. It is home to numerous species of mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles. This includes elephants, tigers, gaur and leopards. There’s also a rich diversity of rare plants and trees in the park, making it a must-visit for nature lovers.

Meanwhile, the smaller Mukurthi National Park was created to protect the Nilgiri Tahr, one of the keystone species of the Nilgiris. The park is also home to tigers, elephants, wild dogs, barking deer, leopards and jackals, not to mention numerous resident and migratory bird species. The park is also home to some endemic plants.

At the end of your Nilgiris tour, you will emerge refreshed and rejuvenated. What began as a convalescent centre for British soldiers in salubrious climes, now offers succour to countless visitors who fall for its irresistible charm.

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