The 192nd founding anniversary of Ooty, the Ootacamund Day, was celebrated in the Nilgiris district on Monday by the Nilgiri Documentation Centre, a non-governmental organisation that works to spread awareness on natural beauty and heritage of the hill station.
The Centre’s director Dharmlingam Venugopal said that Ooty was the first hill station to be founded in India by the British Raj.
It was set up on June 1, 1823 when the then-Coimbatore Collector built a house in Ooty, which later went on become a seat of power in the erstwhile Madras Presidency.
Further, to mark this occasion, the A. Dharmalingam Centenary Award was presented to J. Balakrishnan, a retired teacher from the Government Higher Secondary School, Ooty, in recognition of his 40 years of contribution to education.
He had taught English and history, including that of Ooty, to students at the Government school, which was the oldest in the hill station.
Incidentally, it was also founded on June 1 in 1907, he added.
Mr. Dharmalingam said that with the 200th anniversary of Ooty coming up in less than a decade’s time, the hill station must gear up to welcome more visitors.
