Kodaikanal Information

Kodaikanal is the Americans developed Hill Station in India. During 1821, Lieutenant B. S. Ward, a British surveyor was, the first European to visit Kodaikanal, who was on the lookout for a healthy place to live, for the foreign missionaries working in Madurai and the surrounding areas to escape from the summer heat and epidemics. The early visitors to Kodaikanal had to travel by horse, bullock cart or palanquin. The forest was infested by robbers and wild animals, and yet it became very popular with the elite families, because of the wonderful climate and clean air. In 1834, the Collector of Madurai climbed up from Devadanapatti and built a small bungalow at Kodaikanal. By the second half of the 19th century, churches and other colonial structures started popping up in and around Kodaikanal. Examples of some beautiful structures are the Union Church built in 1895, and a large number of private bungalows. In 1863, Sir Vere Hendry Levinge, the Collector of Madurai, created the 60