Kotagiri

Kotagiri is a hill station and a municipality in the Nilgiris district of the Indian state, Tamil Nadu. The Nilgiri hills have been the traditional home of the "Kota" tribes. The name 'Kota-giri' itself means 'mountains of the kotas'. Kotagiri was known in the past as 'Kota-keri' or 'Kota-gherry', the 'street of Kotas'. The town has developed around numerous knolls and valleys. It is one of the largest hill stations in the Nilgiri Mountains. Located at an average elevation of 1,950 m (6,400 ft), Kotagiri is quietly tucked away in the Nilgiris and used to be one of the summer resorts of Madras Presidency. The town was discovered in the year 1819 by John Sullivan when he came to a village called Dhimbatty to the north of Kotagiri. Kotagiri enjoys the third coldest climate next to Ooty and Kodaikanal in South India.