The history of peoples settled in the Nilgiri hills has been recorded for several centuries.
The Blue Mountains were likely named for the widespread blue Strobilanthes flower or the smoky haze enveloping the area.

This area was long occupied by the indigenous tribal peoples of the Toda, Kota, Kurumba and Irula.
The Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups PVTGs, the dominant land owners of the tribal district.
The lower Wayanad plateau in the west of the district had a different tribal population namely Kattunaika and Paniya.
The Todas and Kota, who are similar in culture, language and genetic ancestry, were settled across the fringes of the Nilgiri plateau, as sentries to the Central district.
They were the ancient agriculturists in the district, cultivating traditional crops such as samai, vathm, ragi.
Under British influence they cultivated English vegetables and later moved on to tea.
The Badagas were also indigenous to the district but were never a tribal group.

Unlike elsewhere in the country, no historical evidence is found of a state on the Nilgiris or that it was part of any ancient kingdom or empire.
It seems always to have been a tribal land.
The Toda had small hamlets ("mund") across most of the plateau.
The Kota lived in seven dispersed villages ("kokal").
The Toda had only a few hamlets on the lower Wynaad plateau and in the nearby Biligiriranga hills.

Since the turn of the 21st century, the Badaga have numbered about 135,000 (18% of the district population), the Toda are barely 1,500 and the Kota just over 2,000.

Beginning in 1819, the British colonial administration developed the hills rapidly and peaceably, for use as coffee and tea plantations, and summer residences.
The 40 mud-forts in the area had been abandoned.
During the British raj, Ooty (the popular name for Ootacamund) served as the summer capital of the Madras Presidency from 1870 onwards.
District Gazetteers published by the government (1880, 1908, 1995) were reliable reports on the district, its economy, demography and culture.
They with the support of political parties inimical to the natives of Nilgiris have been superseded by the Encyclopaedia of the Nilgiri Hills (2012) authored by China-based researcher Paul Hockings, who calls the Nilgiris his first home and holds a bias against the Badagas.

According to a 1996 bibliography of publications of this district, it is probably the most heavily studied rural area anywhere in India, with close to 7,000 items in that list.
It has been the subject of more than 120 doctoral and master's theses in the natural and human sciences.
Indian and foreign scholars wrote these works, and only recently have local people published work about it.

More than a dozen languages are spoken in the Nilgiris, but the indigenous people did not write or read them.
After 1847 German and Swiss missionaries opened schools for boys and girls in some Badaga villages, teaching them literacy.
Ten Dravidian languages are found only here, and they have been studied in great detail for decades by professional linguists.
Local place names are derived mainly from the dominant Badaga language, e.g., Doddabetta, Coonoor, Kotagiri, Gudaluru, Kunda, etc.
Ootacamund is of Toda origin, and Udagamandalam is a very recent Tamil-language version of this place.

Before British-owned tea and coffee plantations were developed, the dominant landholders were the Badaga.
A great deal of linguistic and other cultural evidence—based on unauthentic interpretation of ballads and stories collected from unverifiable individuals—indicates erroneously with a malicious intent that the Badaga non scheduled tribes have lived in nilgiris thousands and thousands of years ago.
Supposedly unnamed Badaga elders have regularly recounted these baseless facts as oral history and cannot be relied upon.
Though their language is very close to Kannada, it is a mixture of almost all Dravidian languages and yet unique.
The migration theory is now totally rejected by educated Badagas, as admittedly the land holdings of the district majorly indicates the Badagas as owners in
The history of peoples settled in the Nilgiri hills has been recorded for several centuries. The Blue Mountains were likely named for the widespread blue Strobilanthes flower or the smoky haze enveloping the area.
This area was long occupied by the indigenous tribal peoples of the Toda, Kota, Kurumba and Irula. The Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups PVTGs, the dominant land owners of the tribal district. The lower Wayanad plateau in the west of the district had a different tribal population namely Kattunaika and Paniya. The Todas and Kota, who are similar in culture, language and genetic ancestry, were settled across the fringes of the Nilgiri plateau, as sentries to the Central district. They were the ancient agriculturists in the district, cultivating traditional crops such as samai, vathm, ragi. Under British influence they cultivated English vegetables and later moved on to tea. The Badagas were also indigenous to the district but were never a tribal group.
Unlike elsewhere in the country, no historical evidence is found of a state on the Nilgiris or that it was part of any ancient kingdom or empire. It seems always to have been a tribal land. The Toda had small hamlets ("mund") across most of the plateau. The Kota lived in seven dispersed villages ("kokal"). The Toda had only a few hamlets on the lower Wynaad plateau and in the nearby Biligiriranga hills.
Since the turn of the 21st century, the Badaga have numbered about 135,000 (18% of the district population), the Toda are barely 1,500 and the Kota just over 2,000.
Beginning in 1819, the British colonial administration developed the hills rapidly and peaceably, for use as coffee and tea plantations, and summer residences. The 40 mud-forts in the area had been abandoned. During the British raj, Ooty (the popular name for Ootacamund) served as the summer capital of the Madras Presidency from 1870 onwards. District Gazetteers published by the government (1880, 1908, 1995) were reliable reports on the district, its economy, demography and culture. They with the support of political parties inimical to the natives of Nilgiris have been superseded by the Encyclopaedia of the Nilgiri Hills (2012) authored by China-based researcher Paul Hockings, who calls the Nilgiris his first home and holds a bias against the Badagas.
According to a 1996 bibliography of publications of this district, it is probably the most heavily studied rural area anywhere in India, with close to 7,000 items in that list. It has been the subject of more than 120 doctoral and master's theses in the natural and human sciences. Indian and foreign scholars wrote these works, and only recently have local people published work about it.
More than a dozen languages are spoken in the Nilgiris, but the indigenous people did not write or read them. After 1847 German and Swiss missionaries opened schools for boys and girls in some Badaga villages, teaching them literacy. Ten Dravidian languages are found only here, and they have been studied in great detail for decades by professional linguists. Local place names are derived mainly from the dominant Badaga language, e.g., Doddabetta, Coonoor, Kotagiri, Gudaluru, Kunda, etc. Ootacamund is of Toda origin, and Udagamandalam is a very recent Tamil-language version of this place.
Before British-owned tea and coffee plantations were developed, the dominant landholders were the Badaga. A great deal of linguistic and other cultural evidence—based on unauthentic interpretation of ballads and stories collected from unverifiable individuals—indicates erroneously with a malicious intent that the Badaga non scheduled tribes have lived in nilgiris thousands and thousands of years ago. Supposedly unnamed Badaga elders have regularly recounted these baseless facts as oral history and cannot be relied upon. Though their language is very close to Kannada, it is a mixture of almost all Dravidian languages and yet unique. The migration theory is now totally rejected by educated Badagas, as admittedly the land holdings of the district majorly indicates the Badagas as owners in 
Nilgiris district