Hill Stations in India: Brief History & list

Hill station is a term invented for hillside retreats that Colonial British used as their summer retreats. These hill stations have now evolved into holiday destinations and visited by Inbound travellers till today to experience a bit about the era goneby.

A hill station is a town located at a higher elevation than the nearby plain or valley. The term was used mostly in colonial Asia (particularly India), but also in (albeit rarely), for towns founded by European colonial rulers as refuges from the summer heat, up where temperatures are cooler. In the Indian context, most hill stations are at an altitude of approximately 1,000 to 2,500 metres (3,300 to 8,200 ft); very few are outside this range.

Hill stations in 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 the British rulers.[1] After the revolt of 1857 the "British sought further distance from what they saw as a disease- ridden land by escape to the in the north. Other factors included anxieties about 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, "such beautiful English rain, such delicious English mud."[2] was officially made the "summer capital of India" in the 1860s and hill stations "served as vital centers of political and military power, especially after the 1857 revolt."[3][4] Dane 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 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."[3]: The hill stations are high-altitude towns used especially by the British as a place of refuge to escape the blistering summer heat and dust of plains during the .Hills are lower than mountains. They are prevalent in Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent, particularly in India. The Indian subcontinent has seven principal mountain ranges and the largest of all is the Himalayas that lies in the northern part of India. The famous peaks and ranges include the range in the Eastern Himalayas which frames the hill stations of and as well as the Nanda Devi in . The Shivalik range that also lies within the same region also has some famous hill stations that include , Drass, Dalhousie, , Shimla, and many more.[citation needed] Most of the hill stations in India were developed by the British around a central mall to get respite from the oppressive summer heat. Many have picturesque lakes as their focal point, making them excellent places for boating activities. Most of the hill stations in India are located in Jammu and Kashmir, , , Uttarakhand, , , , and in the Himalayas and in , , and in Western ghats.[1] Some are located in , . Some of the hill stations in India are listed below by state. Since a number of these hill stations attract large number of tourists in summer as well as other times of the year, they are well connected by rail, road and air services to major Indian cities. Hill stations in India were established for a variety of reasons. After the revolt of 1857 the "British sought further distance from what they saw as a "disease-ridden" land by escape to the Himalayas in the north and Nilgiri Hills in the south", a pattern which started even before 1857. Other factors included anxieties about 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, "such beautiful English rain, such delicious English mud."[2] Shimla was officially made the "summer capital of India" in the 1860s and hill stations "served as vital centers of political and military power, especially after the 1857 revolt."[3]:2 Dane Kennedy, following Monika Bührlein, identifies three stages in the evolution of hill stations in India: 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 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.

List of Hill stations in India- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hill_stations_in_India

Article link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_station