Interesting Places in
& around Ooty
Ooty Golf Course
Ooty Golf Course is located in the town of Ooty in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. The
golf course is set at an altitude of 7200 feet. It is owned by the Gymkhana
Club in Ooty. The course extends over 193.56 acres and comprises 18 holes.
Ooty Golf Course
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Location
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Established
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1896
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Type
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Private
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Owned by
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Operated by
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Total holes
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18
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Website
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Ross Thompson
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72
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Length
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6,235 yards
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Ootacamund Gymkhana Club, situated on
the rolling Wenlock Downs at a height of 7000 ft above sea level, is one of the
finest natural golf courses in the world. This course is a 18 hole, 6235 yard,
Par 70 layout with huge changes in elevation. With the Avalanchi range
surrounding the course & a mature and heavily wooded tree line that
consists of eucalyptus, oak, rhododendron and fir to contend with this is a
challenging course. First time players & the older players should ideally
play just 9 holes as the sheer uphill & downhill slopes will hire the best
of us.
The altitude adds a good 7% distance
to your average distance so a 150 yard 7 iron would travel 160 yards plus. This
18-hole par 70 course is 6235 yards long & is spread over 193 acres. A
unique factor on this course is that off the tee 9 of the 18 holes are blind – i.e
you cannot see the green because its either a dogleg hole or the contours of
the fairway prevent you from doing so. The course is open 7 days a week, except
during tournaments.
History
Colonel Fane Sewell, the then
Secretary of the Blue Mountains Tennis and Cricket Club, formed the golf course
in March 1891, which initially comprised nine holes. Golf enthusiasts formed a
golf club nearby, called the Gymkhana club in September 1896. In 1929,
hydraulic systems were installed to pump water from a nearby stream using a
hydraulic ram for storage in a water tank. Feeder pipes were installed in 1970
to water the golf course.
Features
As the air is thinner in Ooty due to the high altitude, the balls
travel comparatively farther. The course is surrounded by thick forests.
The golf course contains many varieties of trees like rhododendron, oak,
aromatic eucalyptus, and fir which add to the scenic
atmosphere. Nine holes out of the eighteen holes are shot blind as the course has a
rolling landscape. This is also the reason for the green being not visible from
the tee-off area, though there are guide posts which help the players to the
right direction. The fifth hole rises about 200 feet above the fourth hole and
hence is considered the toughest hole of the course. The Ooty Golf Club offers
fairways that are lush but also tight. The greens are well manicured and large.
Fox hunt
A golfer at the course also has the possibility of running into an
ongoing fox hunt at the 13th hole. Beagles and Foxhounds are still trained
today to take part in the hunt. The fox hunt in the area dates back to 1847 and
can be witnessed in the course even today. The greens are fenced in order to
prevent other wild animals from straying onto the course.
Tournaments
An annual amateur golf championship is held during summer, which
dates back to 1906. The first winner of the championship was Major Quinton.
Another golfer, R.B. Carrick, won the championship nine times between 1914 and
1929. In recent years several other major tournaments have been organized on
the golf course.
Facilities
Accommodation for golfers is provided by the golf club with an
annex with ten rooms and six huts. Other facilities include indoor games like
billiards, cards and table tennis, swimming pool, bar and a restaurant.
Entry Free &
Timings
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Rs. 2500
Onwards
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Open on All days of the week
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8:00 AM -
11:00 AM
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1 to 2 Hours
Snooker
Snooker was invented in the Nilgiris at the Ooty Club. Today,
apart from the Ooty Club, Coonoor Club, gymkhana Club, the Lawley Institute and
the bigger hotels, there are quite a few snooker parlours in town offering good
entertainment.
Fishing
Both fly fishing and spinning methods could prove and adventure to
fish hunters. Trout fishing is available in Avalanche Lake with prior
permission from the Fisheries Department, located near the Ooty Bus stand.
Ooty Race Course
Ooty Racecourse is a highland race course in Ooty, The Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. Built for summer racing in the
hills, the course stands at an altitude of 2,268 m above sea level. The
race course is adjacent to the railway station in the heart of town. The race
course, located in the heart of Ooty, is about 2.4 km long and is one of the
best courses in India.
Ooty's Racecourse dominates the lower part of the hill station
between Charing Cross and the lake. The horse-racing season runs from mid-April
to June and on race days the town is a hive of activity; it's an event
impossible to miss if you're in town. Outside the season, the 2.4km racecourse
is little more than an overgrown paddock.
Horse races are conducted in the summer season, from April to
June, when it has been traditional to come to the hill station to escape the
summer heat. The course occupies over 55 acres in the centre of Ooty. The
course is about 2.4 km long, and is one of the most famous race courses in
India. The main event of the racing season is "The Nilgiri Gold Cup
Race", a traditional and popular race. To commemorate 125 years of racing
in this hill station, a special race for "The Post Centenary Silver
Jubilee Cup" was run in 2011, and creating a garden is under
discussion.
A fire occurred at the race course in March 2011, believed to have
been started by a cigarette butt, but was put out without harm to the horses.
Trekking
There are excellent opportunities for trekking in the Nilgiris
with a country rising from 300 metres in the North and South to 2600 metres in
the West. It is possible to enjoy some of the most magnificent sceneries in the
world; observe Wildlife in its many forms: study a great variety of tropical
plants and trees; in a wide range of usually favourable climatic conditions.
Trekking area is divided as per the geographical regions with very
different climatic conditions like the Western area with a temperate climate
consists of Montane wet temperate forests, the North and Eastern region with a
tropical climate consists of dry deciduous broad leaved and scrub forest.
For more details and permission has to be obtained from the
District Forest officer(s) North and South Division and wildlife warden, Ooty.
Nilgiris Wildlife and Environment Association
C/o DFO (North)
Mount Stewart Hill,
Ootacamund, 643 001
Ph. (0423) 2447167
Wildlife Warden, Ooty:
Ph. (0423) 2444098
District Forest Officer (North): Ph. (0423)
2441950
District Forest Officer (South): Ph. (0423)
2444083
Hindustan Photo Films
Hindustan Photo Films Manufacturing Company Limited (HPF) is an Indian-based
public sector manufacturer of photographic films, cine films, X-Ray films,
graphic arts films, photographic paper, and chemistry. Their photographic films
are sold under the name "Indu", which means "silver" in Sanskrit (silver halides are used in film).
Hindustan Photo Films
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Industry
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Founded
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1960
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Headquarters
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Products
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Website
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The HPF, one of the major industrial units of the district, is a
public sector enterprise. This unit is located (about 5 Km away from Ooty
railway station) over a sprawling area of over 300 acres, near the Ooty
golf-links on the Ooty- Mysore road. The HPF was inaugurated by Mrs. Indira
Gandhi, Prime Minister, in January, 1967.
This industrial unit is currently producing Indu roll films which
are used for taking photographs; Indu X-ray films, the quality of which is
acknowledged to be among the best in the world; Indu bromide paper on which
photographs are printed; and Induaerographic for geological and defence
mapping, industrial X - ray film, laser recording film, CAT film, special film
for space photography, oscilloscope direct print paper, photo typesetting paper
and range of chemicals for the film processing.
HPF is the only integrated manufacturer of Photo sensitized goods
in the whole of South East Asia. It is the only Company with the technology for
manufacture of Medical X-ray, Graphic Arts and Black and White products of
international standards.
Radio Astronomy centre
The Radio Astronomy centre (RAC) is part of the National centre of
Radio Astrophysics (NCAR) of the well known Tata Institute of Fundamental
Research (TIFR) which is funded by the Government of India through the
Department of atomic energy. The RAC is situated near Udhagamandalam in the
beautiful surroundings of the Nilgiri Hills & it provides stimulating
Environment for the front-line research in radio astronomy and astrophysics
with its excellent and highly qualified staff and international reputations.
Radio astronomy is the study of the universe through radio waves
reaching us from its many constituents such as the sun, planets, stars,
galaxies, etc. This new branch of science was born 1932 when Karl Jansky
discovered radio noise coming from our Milky Way Galaxy. Like light waves,
radio waves are also electromagnetic in nature, but have much longer wave
lengths.
Different celestial objects radiate in different, regions of the
electromagnetic spectrum-such as X-ray, optical light, ultra-violet, infra-red rays
and radio waves. Their emission mechanism depends upon the Radio Astronomy
Centre.
The Ooty Radio Telescope
The Ooty radio telescope (ORT), as it is known is cylindrical
parabolic reflecting surface, 530m long and 30m wide, placed on a hill whose
slope of about 11degree in the north-south direction is the same as the
latitude of the RAC. This make if possible to track celestial object for about
10 hours from their rising in east to their setting in the west by simply
rotating the antenna mechanically along its long axis. The antenna beam can be
steered in the north-south direction by electronic phasing of the reflector.
The reflecting surface is made up of 1100 thin stainless steel wires, each 530
m long 0.38 mm in diameter. It is supported by 24 parabolic frames separated by
23m from each other.
The telescope operates in a band of maximum bandwidth of 15MHz
centered on a radio frequency of 327 MHz (a wavelength of 0.92 m) the large
size of the telescope make it highly sensitive. As an example, it is in
principle capable of detecting signals from a mere 1 watt radio station located
ten million kilo meter away in space.
The Ooty radio telescope has been designed and fabricated fully
indigenously. The ORT was completed in 1970 and continues to be one of the most
sensitive radio telescopes in the world. Observations made using this telescope
have led to important discoveries and to explain various phenomena occurring in
our Solar system and in other celestial bodies.
Over the 30 years, for example, the ORT has produced many
important astronomical results on radio galaxies, quasars, supernovae, pulsars,
the interstellar and interplanetary media act. One of the most successful
observational programs carried out for many years at Ooty was to determine the
angular structure of hundreds of distance radio galaxies and quasars by the
technique of lunar occultation . The application of this unique database to
observational cosmology provided independent evidence against the Steady-State
theory of Universe and supported the Big-Bang model of the universe.
The telescope is currently being used mainly for the study the
interplanetary scintillation observations provides valuable information about
the solar, wind and solar-wind magnetic storms that affect the near - earth
environment. Interplanetary scintillation observations also provide a valuable
database to understand the space Weather changes and its predictability. the
spaces and its predictability.
UP-Gradation of ORT
An array of 1056 half -wave dipoles in front of a 90 degrees
corner reflection forms the primary feed of the telescope. The front-end
receiver system of the ORT was upgraded with a low noise amplifier (Tamp = 50
K) and a strip line diode-switch controlled phase shifter following each of
the1056 dipoles. This up-gradation improves the sensitivity of the ORT
substantially. Additionally the declination-setting and monitoring system was
computerized leading to the enhanced stability.
A new local oscillator phase shifter with increased accuracy has
improved the response of ORT over the entire 15 MHz band width and also
increased the declination range visible to the ORT. The present system supports
electronic steering to declinations between 60 and + 60 degrees. The telescope
can be operated in either total power or correlation mode. In each mode, 12
beams are formed and beam 1 is the southernmost beam and beam 12 is the
northern most. These 12-beam systems are useful in sky-survey type of
observations.
Cosmic Ray Laboratory
Cosmic rays are charged particles coming from outside the earth's
atmosphere and its energy varies from around 10^6 degree e V to around 1021e V.
Cosmic Rays were discovered by victor by Gictor Hess, an Austrian Scientist in
1912 and he was awarded the noble prize in physics for this discovery, twenty
four years later. Cosmic rays from a very important constituent not only of our
own galaxy but of the entire universe.
They play vital role in the dynamics and evolution of the galaxy.
So it is important to study different aspects (like source, energy, composition
at different energy range etc) of cosmic rays. Low energy cosmic rays are
studied by sending a detector in space in balloon rockets or satellites since
they get absorbed in their earth's atmosphere. High energy cosmic ray interacts
with the oxygen and nitrogen nuclei in the atmosphere and produces a large
number of secondary particles.
When the energy of the cosmic rays incident on
the top of the atmosphere is more than 10^13 e V, the secondary particles reach
the earth's surface as a shower of particles and is known as Extensive Air
Shower (EAS). Detecting these secondary particles does studies of high energy
cosmic rays are done by detecting these secondary particles. In the early
fifties, not much was known about the EAS. So mountains altitudes were most
suitable for experiments in cosmic rays, because of their larger intensity at
higher levels. Operation time will be small at balloon altitudes and the
intensity will be low at sea level.
Keeping this experiment going, a new large air shower experiments
is set up at the campus of the Radio Astronomy Center in Muthorai village of
the Nilgiris. 3840 proportional counters (area of cross-section 10 * 10 cms and
length 6m each are already installed, under large concrete shielding, for the
detection of mu mesons. 257 plastic scintillators of area one square meter each
are operational. This will be expanded to 721 detectors shortly. Data
collection started in 1998, and is still going on along with the work for
expansion.
Nilgiri tea
Nilgiri tea is generally described as being a dark, intensely aromatic,
fragrant and flavoured tea grown in the southern portion of the Western Ghats Mountains
of Southern India. It is grown in the hills of the Nilgiris district of Tamil
Nadu, though there are numerous other tea-growing districts in South India as
well, including Munnar and Central Travancore, further south in Kerala state.
Nilgiri tea plantations are represented by the Nilgiri Planters'
Association, which is an organizational member of the United Planters Association of South India (UPASI),
headquartered in Coonoor. UPASI is the peak body representing plantation owners
in South India. However, plantations only account for around 30% of tea
production in Nilgiri District. The vast majority of production is undertaken
by small growers, who typically own less than one hectare each. The majority of Nilgiri tea small growers are the Badagas,
a local community of agriculturists.
Tea plantations in Nilgiri District (as in other growing districts
of India) typically own and operate their own processing factories. Small
growers sell their tea as green leaf to "bought leaf factories",
which are independently owned. (Although in recent years, some plantation factories
have started buying green leaf from small growers) After processing
(which converts the green leaf into 'made tea'), most is sold through regularly
scheduled auctions in Coonoor, Coimbatore and Kochi. More than 50% of Nilgiri tea is exported, and usually finds its
way into blends used for tea bags.
The expensive hand-sorted, full-leaf versions of the tea like the Orange Pekoe (O.P.) are highly sought after at international auctions
making it unaffordable for most locals. In November 2006 a Nilgiri Tea achieved
"Top Honours" and fetched a world record price of $600 per kg. This
was at the first ever tea auction held in Las Vegas. A machine-sorted, lower-cost variety of high quality tea is a
semi-full leaf variety known as Broken Orange
Pekoe (B.O.P.). However, most production occurs via the Crush or CTC process of manufacture, which delivers a higher
number of cups per measure (technically known ascuppage).
The strong flavours of Nilgiri tea make it useful for blending
purposes. At the same time, Nilgiri tea has suffered from poor reputation
associated with its erstwhile reliance on sales to the former USSR. Soviet buyers had little regard for
quality. In the 1990s the collapse of this trading partner triggered a
substantial economic downslide in the Nilgiris district, which was further
aggravated by various quality issues. In recent years the Tea Board of India has charged some
producers of Nilgiri tea with fraudulently adulterating their product, and has
closed some Bought Leaf Factories due to non-compliance with food safety
regulations. Also with a view to improving product quality, the United Planters Association of South India and the Tea have instigated programs to change cultivation and harvest
practices among small growers.
