Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Eco Park (Aruvi Poonga), Courtallam, Thirunelveli

Eco Park (Aruvi Poonga), Courtallam, Thirunelveli
The Eco Park is located near Five Falls (Aintharuvi) in Courtallam in Thirunelveli District of Tamilnadu. It is also known as ‘Aruvi Poonga’. This Eco Park has been set up over an extent of 37.23 acres at a cost of Rs.5.73 crore. It is touted to be the State’s biggest eco-park. This park is located adjacent to the famous ‘Five Falls. The farm belonging to the Tamil Nadu Horticulture Development Agency (TANHODA) has been converted to accommodate the park.

Some of the attractive features of the park are adventure-play area, sunken garden, fern garden, royal drive, bamboo avenue, rock garden, children play area, murals, butterfly garden, eco pond and stream walk. The Eco Park, known as ‘Aruvi Poonga’, has been established on the 37 acre Horticulture Farm premises near Five Falls with the prime objective of creating awareness on the public on conserving the highly rich biodiversity of the Western Ghats and its highly delicate ecosystem.

Specialty of this new facility is that the existing landscape of the Horticulture Farm and its environment has been completely retained while new attractions have been created to lure the visitors. While the eastern boundary of this park is the stream rustling down from the height to reach Five Falls, the elevated western boundary has a range of gardens to add more colour to the Western Ghats.

The statues, concrete murals, broad tiled differently-abled-friendly walkers’ path, sprawling open food court on the northern boundary of the garden and above all, the cool and unpolluted air of the Eco Park will certainly attract huge crowd throughout the year. The entire area of the park, which has been illuminated with colourful lights, has been meticulously used by creating different gardens for sculpture, fern, butterfly, rose, bamboo, rock, lotus and lily, herbal plants, aromatic plants etc. and fountains and children’s play area.

The highest point of the park has a ‘View Tower’ from which one can see the entire stretch between Tenkasi and famous Thirumalai Murugan Temple. At no place of this park, electricity is being used to take water to nourish the plants as the land’s gradient has been used to effectively distribute water to all parts of ‘Aruvi Poonga’ through drip irrigation. It also has a food court constructed for the purpose of refreshment of the visitors.

Apart from acting as a recreational centre, this park is also a great learning centre for students. Also, the farms of this park have educational and commercial significance. They act as demonstration centers and guide for such purposes. Eco Park is situated 5 Kms away from the bus stand in the western side of the hills.