Ooty , the queen of hill stations is located in the Nilgiri district of the Southern state of Tamilnadu. It is the head quarter of the district and is locally known as Udhagamandalam. The Western and Eastern Ghats meet at this place. The surroundings of Ooty are dotted with coffee and tea plantations and rare trees. Nilgiris or the blue mountains , the hills surrounding Ooty have been declared India’s first biosphere – One of the 14 hot spots of the world because of their rich bio diversity.

Ooty was inhabited by the Todas, a tribe of Tamil Nadu, whose home it was . The beauty of Ooty went unnoticed for thousands of years by the rulers of Tamil Nadu and it was only the British who discovered Ooty in the early 1800s, made it their Summer capital and subsequently developed it.

The British laid a rail connection to Ooty. In 1847 The then Governor of Madras , Marquis Tweedale laid out what is now known as The Government Botanical Garden , in an area of 22 hectares. There is also rose garden which is home to 2000 varieties of roses.
There is also a lake park which has many beautiful trees and plants.

In the year 1824 John Sullivan the then Collector of Coimbatore formed the Ooty lake which is an artificial lake , which today is the pride of the Nilgiris. The Ooty lake has an added attraction of a mini train and has boating facilities also. There is an art gallery present in the town.

There are several other interesting places around Ooty like the deer park and many water falls and peaks of the Nilgiris like Doddabetta, the Pykara lake etc.,

Ooty has still retained the old world charm which attracted the British to it in the first place.