UDHAGAMANDALAM: While Ootacamund may have had to give up its anglicised name, the Queen of the Hills is happy to keep the old British names for its roads and streets.
Havelock Road, Peytons Road, Ampt Hill Road, Little Gibbs Road, Sylks Road, Grant Road and Wellbeck Road are names still in use more than 60 years after Independence.
Udhagamandalam, the town’s official name, is an exception. “What was perhaps originally Othakalmund became Ootacamund and is now Udhagamandalam. It may be the only ‘blemish’!” says K V Krishnan, former public prosecutor and municipal standing counsel for 25 years. “However, ‘Ooty’ is still the popular name,” he adds.
The history behind many street names is not known, but Rees Corner on the outskirts is named after Collector John David Rees who broke his collar-bone there when he fell from his horse. Buttfire, according to a book by K V Krishnan, was an area that originally housed the rifle range of the Nilgiris Voluntary Rifles, formed in June 1878. It used “.303” rifles, which are still used by the Ooty police. At present, Buttfire is a cluster of houses and potato fields but the name is still popular.
Interestingly, some locales are quite contrary to their names: Tiger Hills has no tigers, Elk Hills no elks, Green Fields has no fields, Bishop Town no bishop and Willowbund is without a bund (lake). Old Agraharam and New Agraharam have nary a Brahmin.
Interestingly, successive governments have not attempted to change the names of localities in Ooty, although this is seen as the prerogative of a party in power. Ooty is probably one of the few towns without a Mahatma Gandhi Road, Nehru Road, Anna Salai or Kamaraj Road.
Ooty was founded by the British Collector John Sullivan. He first came to the area in 1822. The stone house he constructed in 1823 still remains - it is part of the Ooty Government Arts and Science College.