‘Ooty Lake will see adventure activities soon’

The highlight of the 11th vegetable show in Kotagiri is a pair of giraffes made of carrots and raddish. | Photo Credit: M. SATHYAMOORTHY

The Ooty Lake and Boat House will soon see adventure activities like zip-lining, boat racing and rock climbing, said Sandeep Nanduri, Director of Tourism and Managing Director of the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC), at Kotagiri in the Nilgiris on Saturday.

Mr. Nanduri, who inaugurated the 11^th vegetable show in Kotagiri, marking the first event of the district’s summer festival, said the Nilgiris was one of the most popular tourist destinations in India. As the COVID-19 pandemic had severely impacted the tourism industry across the State, the Tourism Department had planned adventure activities around the Ooty Lake in the coming months to draw more visitors to the district.

“We are also drawing up guidelines to regulate camping sites, bed and breakfasts as well as caravan parks,” said Mr. Nanduri. ‘Glamping’ or ‘glamorous camping’ sites would also be set up around the Ooty Lake and other places in the Nilgiris to promote “experiential tourism” in the district.

The 11^th vegetable show in Kotagiri drew thousands of visitors to the Nehru Park on Saturday. The most eye-catching of the exhibits was a pair of giraffes, over ten-feet tall, made out of more than 1.6 tonnes of carrots. Other vegetable carvings and arrangements of everyday items such as clocks, musical instruments as well as other animals were on display at the vegetable show.

At the event, the Nilgiris Collector S.P. Amrith said the summer festival this year was being organised on the bicentenary of the colonial exploration of the Nilgiris. He said the vegetable show would showcase the district’s commitment to organic farming, and praised the farmers who had set up stalls to display their produce at the show.

Stalls were set up by the Department of Horticulture and plantation crops from other districts including Coimbatore, Tiruvannamalai, Dharmapuri, Theni, Dindigul, Kancheepuram, Villupuram and Kallakurichi. Mr. Nanduri said there were plans to organise a flower and fruit show in Chennai, similar to the one held in the Nilgiris, either in 2022 or in 2023.