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Finding out the exact location of the Toda village or Mundu was a bit difficult. The internet gave answers which were not exact and pretty much all the offices were closed when we were there since it was holidays.

For those who are interested to visit the mundu, I’ll share all the details about how you can reach the village in Ooty. I’ll also share the way we took is not the best and should be avoided. Other than Ooty, there are Toda villages in other places near Thalakunda and Neri in Coonoor, if I am spelling them correctly.

How To Reach Toda Tribe In Ooty

The Toda tribal village is at the top of the Botanical Garden. On Google maps, it’ll show to walk from the botanical garden but this is how you can reach there. Take a ticket to the Botanical garden, it costs around Rs.40.

Walk to the top of the garden to the right side and if you walk amongst those tall trees, you’ll find a place like this that joins to a small building. That is where you can find the real temple and the village.

You can also try walking the exit pathway from the gate to the top. That will also lead to the village. Or, ask someone at the model hut inside the botanical garden. That is where they sell clothes and other products.

Should You Go To The Village At All?

It completely depends on the intention of your visit. If you want to buy the produces and Toda printed materials, you can buy them from the model hut inside the botanical garden. There are also other shops nearby which promote their products.

If you want to see the temple and it is not easy to walk that far, then the model hut is a pretty similar model of the temple. If you are interested in seeing the real temple and meet with the people or research, then you can find the place at the top of the hill. There is no entry to the temple, so, you can only see it from a distance.

There is also a tribal information and research center, which is helpful.

How We Reached The Toda Tribe And Why You Should Not Take This Way

We were told there is a mundu in Ooty near the famous Botanical garden. We reached there and enquired about it and someone suggested we could go inside the garden and it will be there. In the internet reviews, so many had written not finding the place inside the garden.

We decided to ask the people in the nearby shops and they had no clue. At last, someone told us the route to another place where there is a tribal village. Well, I had lost hope in finding it on our own after many different opinions and nothing coming to a solution.

Finally, someone told us about the way to be taken which will lead us to a small hike and it reaches to the tribal village. We walked and the landmark was a transformer. We passed the transformer and with help from the locals again, returned to the transformer.

When they said about the hike, we were expecting a hillside or something of that sort. But no, it is a concrete path. But, to be honest that was a moment of joy, which did turn into something worse in a few minutes.

The more we climbed up steeper the path became and difficult to climb up. Unlike the valley, this path is very steep and on both sides, there are trees after a point. Then it became bad, with cow dung and water. It had been a rainy week and the place was all muddy.

Then it suddenly got worse, I was pretty much about to throw up and faint. Chi had already climbed up fast and reached the top when I stayed back to some pics before. It was not just the foul smell that made me nauseous but it was difficult to breathe. And the slope was pretty bad to climb too.

When we reached at the top, it was for sure the tribal village but the backside of it. In fact, they were a bit confused to see someone coming that way. Later we came to know that it’s the path for the cattle to go down to graze and they don’t normally walk through that way.

Well, the experience of meeting them and buying the printed shawl did make us forget about it but you don’t have to take this route. Nobody has to, in fact. Spend Rs. 40 on the ticket to the botanical garden and you can actually reach there.

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