Chavara is a village in

Karunagappally Karunagappally is a municipality in the Kollam district of Kerala, India. It is 24 km north of Kollam and south of Alappuzha. Karunagappally taluk consists of Alappad, Ochira, Adinad, Karunagappally, Thazhava, Pavumba, Thodiyoor, Kallal ...

taluk,

Kollam district Kollam district (), (formerly Quilon district) is one of 14 districts of the state of Kerala, India. The district has a cross-section of Kerala's natural attributes; it is endowed with a long coastline, a major Laccadive Sea seaport and an in ...

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

, India. It is a part of Kollam Lok Sabha constituency. The current MLA of the Chavara constituency is Dr. Sujith Vijayan Pillai of the LDF.

Location and tourism

Chavara is situated on the shores of the

Arabian sea The Arabian Sea ( ar, اَلْبَحرْ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Bahr al-ˁArabī) is a region of the northern Indian Ocean bounded on the north by Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel ...

and the major freshwater lake in

, Ashtamudi, which flows through it. Chavara has many lakes and lagoons including Sasthamkota Lake. Popular tourist destinations are Kattilmekkathil Devi Temple, St Andrew's Church, Kovilthottam,

Kottankulangara Devi Temple The Kottankulangara Devi Temple is a Hindu temple to the goddess Durga Bhagavathy or Aadi Shakthi, the supreme mother of power, located in the village of Chavara, Kerala, India. Early history The plot of land where the temple is situated was o ...

, Kovilthottam Lighthouse as well as the area around

Ashtamudi lake Ashtamudi Lake (''Ashtamudi Kayal''), in the Kollam District of the Indian state of Kerala, is the most visited backwater and lake in the state. It possesses a unique wetland ecosystem and a large palm-shaped (also described as octopus-shaped) ...

. .

Some important areas around Ashtamudi lake in Chavara are Kurishumoodu, the Old Portuguese cross, Karattal kadavu, TS canal, Idathuruthu and fisherman colony, Koyivila boat jetty, Arinallor Kadavu and Cherikadavu backwater.

Industries

The village has a high supply of

rare-earth elements The rare-earth elements (REE), also called the rare-earth metals or (in context) rare-earth oxides or sometimes the lanthanides (yttrium and scandium are usually included as rare earths), are a set of 17 nearly-indistinguishable lustrous silve ...

in its sand, mainly

titanium Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in ...

on its beaches. The major industries in the public sector at Chavara that deal with the mining and processing of rare-earth metals are Kerala Minerals and Metals Limited (KMML) and Indian Rare Earths Limited (IRE). For the processing of

, India's first Titanium Sponge Plant (TSP) was developed by KMML in association with DMRL under

DRDO The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) (IAST: ''Raksā Anūsandhān Evam Vikās Sangaṭhan'') is the premier agency under the Department of Defence Research and Development in Ministry of Defence of the Government of India, ...

and the project was funded by

VSSC The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) is a major space research centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), focusing on rocket and space vehicles for India's satellite programme. It is located in Thiruvananthapuram, in the Indi ...

under

ISRO The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO; ) is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under the Department of Space (DOS) which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India, while the Chairman ...

. The plant was inaugurated in 2011 by the then Defense Minister of India, AK Antony. Kerala Premo Pipes a govt company (under KWA) in Chavara has been lying closed for the past 18 years. The Premo pipe factory started production in 1961 and closed in 1997 following adverse market conditions. Though an MOU was signed between KWA and HLL in 2011 for starting PVC pipes, it is yet to be materialized.http://www.thehindu.com/2011/02/09/Todays-paper-kollam

Notable people

O. N. V. Kurup Ottaplakkal Neelakandan Velu Kurup (known as O. N. V. Kurup; 27 May 1931 – 13 February 2016) was a Malayalam poet and lyricist from Kerala, India, who won the Jnanpith Award, the highest literary award in India for the year 2007. He receive ...

, Malayalam poet and lyricist * V. Sambasivan, Kathaprasangam artist * Baby John, politician *

B. Ravi Pillai B. Ravi Pillai (born 2 September 1953) is a Dubai-based Indian billionaire businessman. He is the founder and chairman of the RP Group. As of September 2021, his net worth is estimated at US$2.5 billion. Early life Ravi Pillai was born on 2 ...

, businessman *

Kalaranjini Kalaranjini is an Indian actress and classical dancer who started her career in the early 1980s. Personal life Kalaranjini was born to theatre artists Chavara V. P. Nair and Vijayalakshmi. She is divorced and has a son, Prince. Partial film ...

, actress * Kalpana, actress *

Urvashi Urvashi ( sa, उर्वशी, Urvaśī}) is the most prominent apsara (celestial nymph) in Hindu mythology, considered to be the most beautiful of all the apsaras, and an expert dancer. She is mentioned in both ''Vedic'' and ''Puranic'' s ...

, actress *

Ambili Devi Ambili Devi is an actress from Kerala, India who appeared in many Malayalam cinema and serials. She has established herself as a lead actress in Malayalam Television Industry and has won the Kerala State Television Award for Best Actress in 2 ...

, Malayalam film actress * Chavara Parukutty Amma, artiste of the

Kathakali Kathakali ( ml, കഥകളി) is a major form of classical Indian dance. It is a "story play" genre of art, but one distinguished by the elaborately colourful make-up and costumes of the traditional male actor-dancers. It is native to the M ...

dance drama

Footnotes

References

{{Kollam district

Kottankulangara Festival The Kottankulangara Festival is an annual Hindu festival in Kerala, India in which thousands of male devotees dress-up as females and celebrate the festival. The festival takes place at the Kottankulangara Devi Temple at Kollam, which is sa ...

Villages in Kollam district