Ooty
A hillstation for treks & tribes
A mouthful of a name, Udhagamandalam has been popularized to Ooty by the throngs of tourists who visit this hill station to escape from the heat of the state’s peak summer months. Populated by various mountain tribes, occupied in the 19th Century by the British to serve as their summer headquarters, Ooty with its forest vistas, chilly climate and colonial structures offers a great halt for adventurers (there are trek routes aplenty through tea plantations and along steep mountain faces), the culturally-inclined (a plethora of tribes with their distinct customs and lifestyles inhabit the outskirts), and the wildlifers (apart from a rich biodiversity in and around the town, and along the mountainsides, there are several national parks located close by).
Image credits: Ashwin Kumar (CC-BY-SA-2.0)