24-521: Yelagiri ( Tamil: [jeːlaɡiɾi] ), also spelled Elagiri , is a hill station located in Tirupathur district of Tamil Nadu , India. Located at an altitude of 1,410 m (4,630 ft), it forms a part of the Eastern Ghats mountain range. The hills consist of 14 hamlets spread across an area of 72 km (28 sq mi). As per folklore, when Hindu god Vishnu visited
48-451: A hill town transformed by contemporaneous tourism practices as a hill station. Most hill stations, listed by region: Hundreds of hill stations are located in India. The most popular hill stations in India include: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Punjab Sindh Balochistan Gilgit Baltistan National Highway 48 (India) Route map National Highway 48 (NH 48) is
72-424: A major National Highway of India that starts at Delhi and terminates at Chennai traversing through seven states of India . It has a total length of 2807 km (1744 miles). NH 48 passes through the states of Delhi , Haryana , Rajasthan , Gujarat , Maharashtra , Karnataka and Tamil Nadu . The stretch between Pune and Bengaluru was known as P.B. Road in olden days. Its stretch from Delhi to Mumbai
96-408: A major part of the economy of the hills. The lake has boating facilities and is accompanied by a park. Other places of interest include Jalagamparai waterfalls, Telescope observatory and Swamimalai hills. The district administration has taken up development of the hills in 2007. Though many of the facilities developed during the plan in 2007, have been badly maintained. A herbal farm is maintained by
120-514: A population of 538 under the age of six. The population included 3,318 scheduled tribes and 230 scheduled caste . The population included 2,170 males and 2,239 females with a sex ratio of 1,032. The literacy rate was 65.8%. The area is administered by a town panchayat as a part of the Jolapettai block of Tirupattur taluk . The panchayat is responsible for the basic infrastructure such as road, lighting, water supply and sanitation. There
144-611: A summer retreat. Hill stations in British India were established for a variety of reasons. One of the first reasons in the early 1800s, was for the place to act as a sanitorium for the ailing family members of British officials. After the rebellion of 1857 , the British "sought further distance from what they saw as a disease-ridden land by [escaping] to the Himalayas in the north". Other factors included anxieties about
168-507: Is a town located at a higher elevation than the nearby plain or valley. The English term was originally used mostly in colonial Asia , but also in Africa (albeit rarely), for towns founded by European colonialists as refuges from the summer heat and, as Dale Kennedy observes about the Indian context, "the hill station (...) was seen as an exclusive British preserve: here it was possible to render
192-424: Is one primary health center catering to healthcare needs of the population. Yelagiri is located in Tirupathur district of Tamil Nadu . Located at an altitude of 1,410 m (4,630 ft), it forms a part of the Eastern Ghats mountain range. The hills consist of 14 hamlets spread across an area of 72 km (28 sq mi). Punganoor lake is a man-made lake covering 56.71 m (610.4 sq ft) in
216-585: Is situated about 220 km (140 mi) from the state capital Chennai and 160 km (99 mi) from Bengaluru . The major access roads are maintained by the Department of Highways and Minor Ports of Government of Tamil Nadu. The nearest major rail head is at Jolarpettai , located about 19 km (12 mi) away. The nearest airport about 155 km (96 mi) away is located at Salem , which has limited domestic flights with major international airports at Bengaluru and Chennai . Tourism forms
240-925: The Anglo-Mysore Wars and the Polygar Wars , the British East India Company annexed the region to the Madras Presidency the early 19th century. In the 19th century, Malai Vellalar (Malayali) hill tribes, populated the region. Later, the British Empire took control of the region from the British East India Company in 1857. The hills were organized as private properties of the Zamindars of Yelagiri. After Indian Independence in 1947,
264-744: The Government of Tamil Nadu . Temples include Kalyana Venkataramana Perumal temple, Nilavur Amman temple, Jalagandeeswarar temple and Velavan temple. Trekking activities are carried out at Swamimalai hills and adventure sports such as paragliding and rock climbing are being promoted by the Government. The yeary "Yelagiri Summer Festival" is celebrated in May and is organised by Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation . Stalls from different departments, flowers show, dog show and various cultural programs are conducted. Hill station A hill station
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#1732801983482288-467: The 1857 revolt." As noted by Indian historian Vinay Lal , hill stations in India also served "as spaces for the colonial structuring of a segregational and ontological divide between Indians and Europeans, and as institutional sites of imperial power." William Dalrymple wrote that "The viceroy was the spider at the heart of Simla's web: From his chambers in Viceregal Lodge, he pulled
312-460: The Indian into an outsider". The term is still used in present day, particularly in India, which has the largest number of hill stations, most are situated at an altitude of approximately 1,000 to 2,500 metres (3,300 to 8,200 ft). Nandi Hills is a 11th-century hill station that was developed by the Ganga dynasty in present-day Karnataka , India. Tipu Sultan (1751–1799) notably used it as
336-547: The dangers of life in India, among them "fear of degeneration brought on by too long residence in a debilitating land". The hill stations were meant to reproduce the home country, illustrated in Lord Lytton 's statement about Ootacamund in the 1870s as having "such beautiful English rain, such delicious English mud." Shimla was officially made the "summer capital of India" in the 1860s and hill stations "served as vital centres of political and military power, especially after
360-573: The early Sangam period , it was under the rule of the Cheras , Pandyas and Cholas over different periods of history. The hills are mentioned in Tamil literature by Ottakoothar in 12th century CE. It was under the control of Vijayanagara empire in the late middle age , who established sway over the region. In the latter part of the 18th century, the region came under the Kingdom of Mysore and after
384-403: The earth, he planted his feet on the hills. As the people could not stand his weight, they yelled ‘yelo’ in fear (‘kili’ in Tamil ), which later became Yelagiri. As per Hindu beliefs, Vishnu came to the hills later to marry goddess Lakshmi , who is known by the name "Yelagiri Thayar" and the region came to be known as Yeloshwaram. While the region was probably ruled by tribal chieftains during
408-579: The hills. The highest point is the Swamimalai hills at an altitude of 4,338 m (14,232 ft). The hills are rich in flora with orchards, rose-gardens, and green valleys. Yelagiri's has a warm climate in summer and is cooler in the winter. The climate is considered to be Aw according to the Köppen-Geiger climate classification . The hills can be accessed by a mountain road with 14 hair pin bends, branching out from National Highway 48 . It
432-515: The main impetus being "places to rest and recuperate from the arduous life on the plains". In the second half of the 19th century, there was a period of consolidation with few new hill stations. In the final phase, "hill stations reached their zenith in the late nineteenth century. The political importance of the official stations was underscored by the inauguration of large and costly public-building projects." The concept of Hill Station has been used loosely in India (and more broadly South Asia) since
456-514: The mid-20th century to qualify any town or settlement in mountainous areas, which attempt to expand its local economy toward tourism, or have been invested by recent mass tourism practices. Kullu and Manali in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh , are two example of that misuse of Hill Station or more accurately deviation of its meaning. These two historical settlements existed prior to the British, and haven't been specially frequented by them or even extensively modified or shaped by them. However,
480-663: The non-western world in general." The historian of Himalayan cultures Shekhar Pathak speaking about the development of Hill Stations like Mussoorie noted that "the needs of this (European) elite created colonies in Dehradun of Indians to cater to them." This "exclusive, clean, and secure social space – known as an enclave – for white Europeans ... evolved to become the seats of government and foci of elite social activity", and created racial distinctions which perpetuated British colonial power and oppression as Nandini Bhattacharya notes. Dale Kennedy observed that "the hill station, then,
504-478: The region was taken over by the Government of India and became part of the Madras State , which later became Tamil Nadu. Though the region has been occupied during prehistoric times, recent settlement occurred in the 19th century, when about 200 Malayali tribes populated the area and practiced agriculture . As per the 2011 census , the hills had a population of 4,409 residing in 1,128 households including
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#1732801983482528-403: The rise of internal domestic tourism in India from the eighties and the subsequent reproduction of Hill Station practice by urban middle-class Indians contributed to the labelling of these two localities as Hill Stations . Munnar , a settlement in the state of Kerala whose economy is primarily based on tea cultivation and processing , as well as plantation agriculture, is another example of
552-419: The strings of an empire that stretched from Rangoon in the east to Aden in the west." Meanwhile Judith T Kenny observed that "the hill station as a landscape type tied to nineteenth-century discourses of imperialism and climate. Both discourses serve as evidence of a belief in racial difference and, thereby, the imperial hill station reflected and reinforced a framework of meaning that influenced European views of
576-467: Was seen as an exclusive British preserve: here it was possible to render the Indian into an outsider". Kennedy, following Monika Bührlein, identifies three stages in the evolution of hill stations in India: high refuge, high refuge to hill station, and hill station to town. The first settlements started in the 1820s, primarily as sanitoria. In the 1840s and 1850s, there was a wave of new hill stations, with
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