Where was the game of snooker invented? Which hills welcomed visits from Nikita Khrushchev, Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru and also Edward Lear? Where did Maria Montessori, Madame Blavatsky and the Viceroys of India like to take their vacations? Where do tigers, bisons and elephants still roam the jungles? The answer in each case is the Nilgiri Hills of Southern India. Tennyson (though never there) wrote of 'the sweet, half-English air of the Neilgherries' -- and thousands have gone there to enjoy it over the past two centuries: Princes, tourists, scholars, missionaries, soldiers and officials alike. This book is a Who Was Who of those people, and a broad, neatly organised, completely up to date and uniquely detailed account of the Nilgiri Hills from every scientific perspective -- from Anthropology to Zoology.