Ooty: “Ooty and other parts of Nilgiris are enchanting now with lush greenery and salubrious weather. The autumn season in Nilgiris reveals how nature is so bountiful in the hills here,” said Mr. Sandeep, a tourist from Guntur in Andhra Pradesh. Autumn is popularly known as the second season of Ooty, and runs between September and mid-November.
The travel and tourism industry is looking forward to busy tourism activities in the days to come as autumn always brings a good number of tourists to the hills. The good downpour over the past three months has helped the hills regain their verdant look. Added to the greenery is the blooming of flowers like acacia and cherry on the tree tops.
Stating that nearly four lakh tourists usually visit the Government Botanical Garden (GBG) during autumn, Mr. Shiva Subramaniam Samraj, joint director of Horticulture (in-charge) here, said that the blooming of flowers in the GBG and other gardens across the hills have just commenced. “7500 flower pots are getting ready at the flower show gallery at the GBG to treat autumn visitors with their colourful bloom. The GBG is expected to be in full bloom with a riot of colours from the third week of September. After the popular summer season, it is only during autumn that the GBG usually records higher tourist arrival,” he added.
N. Chandrasekar, secretary of the Nilgiris Hotel and Restaurants Association, said that the autumn season always keeps Ooty busy after the vigorous Southwest monsoon stretch between June and August when tourist activities become sluggish. “The autumn break for schools and the puja holidays attracts tourists from across the country,” he said and wished that the tourism department made efforts to revive the autumn festival, that used to be a big attraction in the past.
Rajeshkumar James, secretary of the Citizens’ Forum of Coonoor, said that since this year there is a gregarious blooming of the legendary ‘kurinji’ flower in the jungle fringes now in the Nilgiris, the tourist department should organise special ‘kurinji’ picnics to select pockets. It is better if the horticulture department source ‘kurinji’ from the jungles and display it in the GBG in Ooty and Sim’s Park in Coonoor to help tourists have a glimpse of this rare flower, he suggested.
