South India 2008

Photos by Adam Jones

These photos were taken during two-and-a-half months in South India
(states of Karnataka, Goa, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala) from June to August 2008.

Gallery 3: Udhagamandalam (Ooty)

Udhagamandalam, known to the British as Ootacamund and developed
by them as a hill-station retreat from the heat of the plains, sits five thousand feet
up in the mountains of the Western Ghats. During the days of the Raj, much of South India
was run from this town, which became known as "Snooty Ooty" for its highfalutin colonial
ways. Since independence, it has experienced the usual malaise of unplanned over-
development ... though the surrounding scenery is still ravishing.

I.

Countryside en route to the Western Ghats (the foothills are visible in the distance).

II.

This photo and the next: scenery in the Western Ghats,
a major centre of Indian tea production.

III.

IV.

V.

Children of the Todas, the main tribal group in the Western Ghats.

VI.

This photo and those remaining in the gallery: in Ooty's Botanical Gardens, perhaps
the most beautifully landscaped I have ever seen, designed in the 1840s by
representatives of London's Kew Gardens.

VII.

VIII.

IX.

X.

XI.

XII.

XIII.

Continue to the
next gallery