The scene of action at the annual Summer Festival which is now in progress in this tourist resort shifted to the Ooty lake.
With a large number of tourists making a bee line to the venue at the far end of the town, the annual boat race was conducted in an interesting manner by the Nilgiris district administration, the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation and the Department of Tourism.
The race was flagged off by the Nilgiris Collector Archana Patnaik.
The District Revenue Officer S.Kuppusamy distributed the prizes.
Many of the tourists interviewed by The Hindu said that more such “lively” programmes should be organized to entertain the tourists.
They were in tune with the ethos of the hill station.
Pointing out that they came to Udhagamandalam mainly to enjoy the weather and get away from the noise in the plains, they opined that programmes organized for the benefit of the visitors should reflect the culture and lifestyle of the natives.
A number of tourists participated enthusiastically in various categories of the event.
The winners:
Men's Doubles: 1. Ganapathy and Saravana Prabhu (Trichy); 2. M.Pradeep Kannan and G.Nedumaran (Palani); 3. M.Kathiresan and M.Arun Prakash (Palani).
Women's Doubles: 1. R.Divya and R.Suruthi (Bangalore); 2. Shivani and Shilpa (Mumbai); 3. Chithra and Sujatha (Chennai).
Couples: 1. Vinodhkumar and Sindhu (Chennai); 2. M.R.Mohan and Arulmani (Erode); 3. Gopalan and Geetha (Kochi).
