Ooty: Nilgiris, all set for 2nd autumn tourism season

OOTY: The rejuvenating cool and yet shiny mornings, cloudy afternoons with occasional showers and drizzles, breezy evenings coupled with verdant looks and bloom of flowers in the  hills, herald the “Second autumn season of Ooty”, that runs between mid-September and early-November, raising hopes for  vibrant tourism in the days to come.

After the heavy spell of rains in August that stretched up to early September this year, the Nilgiris now pose a picture of elegance and splendor to woo the autumn tourists in big numbers.

At the Government Botanical Garden (GBG), a stellar tourist attraction always here, the arrangement of flowers in 15,000 pots have just commenced which heralded that the autumn season has begun to peak up.

Shiva Subramanian Samraj, joint director of Horticulture here, said that flowers in 85 varieties that includes daliah, salvia, inca marigold, French marigold, begonia, daisy, calendula, dianthus, chrysanthemum, aster, primula, balsam, ageratum, renunculus, cyclamen, anthurium, tuberous begonia and geranium that were grown in 15,000 pots are bring arranged in the flower show gallery as well as in the lawn adjacent to the Fern house along the gallery to make it grand autumn attraction this year.  

This apart, flowers in lakhs which are being grown across various flower-beds in the GBG are in the initial stages of bloom now.  The GBG is expected to be in full autumn bloom from next weekend.  Likewise, the other gardens in the hills such as the Sim’s Park in Coonoor, Government Rose Garden in Ooty are ready with autumn bloom to provide the visual treat to the tourists, he added.

While the woods, flowers,  colours and fragrance and also the salubrious autumn weather has brought immense hope for the travel and tourism industry, it wanted the district administration of Nilgiris to revive autumn festival as in the past to make it a big attraction this autumn.

N. Chandrasekar, secretary of Nilgiris Hotels and Restaurants Association, said that autumn festival was clubbed with tea and tourism festival in the past to add sheen to autumn tourist season.

Unfortunately, it was scrapped for the past five years.  This year the tourism department should take steps to revive the autumn festival by dovetailing cultural and food festival into it as done in the past, to pep up autumn tourism, he urged.