Tamil Nadu Tourism Minister K. Ramachandran paid floral tributes to the British administrator and colonist, John Sullivan, who led the first colonial expedition up the Nilgiris slopes on the occasion of what would have been Sullivan’s 169th death anniversary in Udhagamandalam, the Nilgiris, on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters after paying his respects at Garden Road, where a bust of Sullivan was installed in 2022, Mr. Ramachandran said that it had been 200-years since Sullivan led the first colonial expedition up the Nilgiri mountains. He said that Sullivan, who was born in 1788, had been the Coimbatore Collector between 1815 and 1830, when he attempted to scale the Nilgiris mountains.
Mr. Ramachandran claimed that Sullivan had a deep concern for the environment and local ecology, evidenced in the creation of the Ooty lake. He said that the legacy of Sullivan was still felt today, though it had been 169 years since his death. Also present at the event was the Nilgiris district Collector M. Aruna and other officials from the district administration.
