Pothundi Dam, Nelliyampathy

Pothundi Dam, Nelliyampathy

Pothundi Dam is an irrigation dam near Pothundi village in the Palakkad district of Kerala state, India. Constructed in the 19th century, it is considered one of the oldest dams in India. It provides irrigation to an area of 5,470 hectares (13,500 acres) in the Palakkad district and drinking water supply to the Nemmara, Aylur, and Melarcode Panchayat.  A popular festival held on the shores of the reservoir is known as the Nemmara Vallengi Vela Festival.

Pothundi is a earth dam situated in Palakkad District of Kerala State. It was constructed in the 19th century and is the second dam in Asia which does not use cement mixture for construction. Pothundi Dam does not have a concrete core at its base which is mainly found in other dams. Instead of concrete mixture the core is, built using a mixture of jaggery and quick lime.

Dam is located about 42 km drive from the Palakkad City. The dam site is a picnic spot for locals and many other tourists. The lush green environment makes it an ideal picnic spot away from the city chaos. It was built as a reservoir to serve the water required for agriculture and drinking purpose in the Chittur taluk.

The dam is built across the kaivayi of the Ayilurpuzha (Bharathappuzha sub tributary). The Meenchadypuzha and Padipuzha flows into this reservoir. The reservoir has an ayacut with 10930 hectares in the Chittur and Alathur taluks of Palakkad.

The beautiful views of Nelliyampathy Mountains can be seen from Pothundi dam site. The reservoir is located about 8 km from Nemmara and 42 km from Palakkad city; Nelliampathy hills is approximately 17 km away. The dam site was the main location for the Malayalam film Vinodayathra.

The Pothundi dam site provides a picturesque to the visitors with a back drop of the hill ranges of Nelliyampathy on one side and acres of green rice fields on the other side.

The spot is an ideal place to make a stopover on your way to Nelliyampathy to enjoy the beauty of nature and to unwind yourself.

Overview

Pothundi Reservoir is one of the important sources of drinking water in the region and is a famous picnic spot. Tourists can enjoy boating at the reservoir.

It will be really amazing if you visit Pothundi Dam and Reservoir during Monsoon as the water level will be more and the greenery also will be cute during this time. 

Pothundi Dam is situated near to the down valley town “Nemmara ". You can also visit a small beautiful garden over there. Once you reach the right top of the dam through the entrance, you can see the breathtaking  view of  Nelliyampathy Valley on the left side of the Dam and the amazing beauty of paddy fields on the right side of the Dam, which are amazing. 

 There are plenty of local private buses plying to Pothundi Dam from Nemmara. You will never bother about the road condition as the authority has been maintained it properly without any gutter.

There is no hotel / restaurant located in Pothundi Dam area. But you can find better restaurants in Nemmara, which is hardly 15 minutes drive from Pothundi Reservoir. Meanwhile fast food and ice cream will be available inside the garden.

You can't find any ATM center and petrol Bunk in Pothundi Reservoir area. But it will be available in Nemmara town.

Topography

The dam is built in the Pothundi village across the Meenichiladipuzha and Padipuzha rivers, which are tributaries of the Aylampuzha River, about 400 metres (1,300 ft) upstream of the confluence, in the backdrop of the Nelliampathy hills. It drains a catchment area of 31 square kilometers (12 sq mi) at Full Reservoir Level, which is thickly forested with teak wood trees. The dam is in the Chittur taluk, about 8 kilometers (5.0 mi) from Nemmara and 42 kilometers (26 mi) from Palakkad and 17 kilometers (11 mi) from Nelliampathy.

History

The dam, built in the 19th century for irrigation, was developed as a medium irrigation project completed in 1971 at a cost of Rs.23.425 million. The dam also provides water supply, and the reservoir has been developed as an important inland fisheries project.

Features

The dam is an earth-filled structure built to a height of 32.61 metres (107.0 ft) and a length of 1,680 metres (5,510 ft). The gross storage capacity of the reservoir is 50,914,000 m3 (41,277 acre·ft) and the live storage, excluding dead storage, is 43,900,000 m3 (35,590 acre·ft). 

It has a spillway section to route the designed flood discharge. The irrigation component of the project, completed in 1971, consists of a 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) long right bank canal and an 8 kilometers (5.0 mi) left bank canal, which provides irrigation to an area of 5,465 hectares (13,500 acres) in the Chittur and Alathur taluks.

In view of favorable soil conditions, the irrigation practice under this project is a rice-based system in the Palghat plains. The storage from the reservoir is also utilized to the extent of 15,380,000 m3 (12,469 acre·ft) for providing drinking water supply to Nemmara and Aylur villages.

Reservoir fishing is well developed and covers an area of 363 hectares (900 acres). The various species of river fishes found in the reservoir are murrel, catfish, tilapia, rohu (Labeo rohita), barbus, eel, common carp (Cyprinus carpio), mrigal, gourami, and catla.

According to FAO statistics, the stocking is 1.241 million fingerlings per year with stocking rate of 684 fingerlings per ha per year. The fisheries development in the reservoir has been done under the Indo-German Reservoir Fisheries Development Project. According to the State Fisheries Department, the fish catch was about 7,057 kilograms (15,558 lb) per year during 1992-93 with a yield of 19.4 per ha. 

The production units proposed under this project were brood fish stock, mini-hatchery, and rearing components, apart from the pens to be set up in the reservoir periphery and the floating cages offshore.