Pothundi Dam is an irrigation dam near Pothundi village in the

Palakkad Palakkad (), formerly known as Palghat, historically known as Palakkattussery is a city and municipality in the Indian state of Kerala. It is the administrative headquarters of the Palakkad District. Palakkad is most densely populated municipal ...

district of

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 ...

state, India. Constructed in the 19th century, it is considered one of the oldest dams in India. It provides irrigation to an area of in the

Palakkad district Palakkad District () is one of the 14 districts in the Indian state of Kerala. It was carved out from the southeastern region of the former Malabar District on 1 January 1957. It is located at the centre of Kerala. It is the largest district i ...

and drinking water supply to the Nemmara, Ayalur, Melarcode Panchayat. An unusual feature of the

earth dam An embankment dam is a large artificial dam. It is typically created by the placement and compaction of a complex semi-plastic mound of various compositions of soil or rock. It has a semi-pervious waterproof natural covering for its surface an ...

is the core wall, which is built with a mixture of

jaggery Jaggery is a traditional non-centrifugal cane sugar consumed in the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and Africa. It is a concentrated product of cane juice and often date or palm sap without separation of the molasses and crystals, and can ...

and quick lime. Pothundy Dam Gardens2

A popular festival held on the shores of the reservoir is known as the Nemmara Vallengi Vela Festival.

Topography

The dam is built in the Pothundy village across the Meenichiladipuzha and Padipuzha rivers, which are tributaries of the Aylampuzha river, about upstream of the confluence, in the backdrop of the Nelliampathi hills. It drains a catchment area of at Full Reservoir Level, which is thickly forested with

teak wood Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters ( pan ...

trees. The dam is in the Chittur

taluk A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...

, about from

Nemmara Nemmara is a town in Palakkad district, Kerala, India. It is administrated by the Nemmara Grama Panchayat. Nemmara is the entry point to the Nelliampathi hills, which are located at the foothills of Western Ghats. Demographics , according t ...

and from

Nelliampathi Nelliyampathy (also spelled as Nelliampathi) is a hill station, located from Palakkad, state of Kerala, India.'' Geography * Nelliampathy is surrounded by tea and coffee plantations. * The village has its own gram panchayat and forms a par ...

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 and a length of . The gross storage capacity of the reservoir is and the live storage, excluding dead storage, is . It has a spillway section to route the designed flood discharge. The irrigation component of the project, completed in 1971, consists of a long right bank canal and an left bank canal, which provides irrigation to an area of in the

Chittur Chittur-Thathamangalam is a town and municipality in Palakkad district of Kerala State, India. It is the headquarters of Chittur taluk, south-east of Palakkad, on the banks of the Kannadipuzha, a major headstream of the Bharathapuzha, the sec ...

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 for providing drinking water supply to Nemmara and Ayalure villages. Reservoir fishing is well developed and covers an area of . The various species of river fishes found in the reservoir are murrel,

catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the three largest species alive, ...

tilapia Tilapia ( ) is the common name for nearly a hundred species of cichlid fish from the coelotilapine, coptodonine, heterotilapine, oreochromine, pelmatolapiine, and tilapiine tribes (formerly all were "Tilapiini"), with the economically most ...

rohu The rohu, rui, ruhi or roho labeo (''Labeo rohita'') is a species of fish of the carp family, found in rivers in South Asia. It is a large omnivore and extensively used in aquaculture. Description The rohu is a large, silver-colored fish o ...

(''Labeo rohita''),

barbus ''Barbus'' is a genus of ray-finned fish in the family Cyprinidae. The type species of ''Barbus'' is the common barbel, first described as ''Cyprinus barbus'' and now named ''Barbus barbus''. ''Barbus'' is the namesake genus of the subfamily B ...

eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

common carp The Eurasian carp or European carp (''Cyprinus carpio''), widely known as the common carp, is a widespread freshwater fish of eutrophic waters in lakes and large rivers in Europe and Asia.Fishbase''Cyprinus carpio'' Linnaeus, 1758/ref>Arkive The ...

(''Cyprinus carpio''),

mrigal The mrigal carp (''Cirrhinus cirrhosus''), ( bn, মৃগেল, translit=mrigél) also known as the white carp, is a species of ray-finned fish in the carp family. Native to streams and rivers in India, the only surviving wild population is in ...

gourami Gouramis, or gouramies , are a group of freshwater anabantiform fishes that comprise the family Osphronemidae. The fish are native to Asia—from the Indian Subcontinent to Southeast Asia and northeasterly towards Korea. The name "gourami", of ...

, and

catla Catla (''Labeo catla''), ( bn, কাতলা, translit=kātlā) also known as the major South Asian carp, is an economically important South Asian freshwater fish in the carp family Cyprinidae. It is native to rivers and lakes in northern Indi ...

. 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 per year during 1992–93 with a yield of 19.4 per ha. The production units proposed under this project were broodfish stock, mini-hatchery, and rearing components, apart from the pens to be set up in the reservoir periphery and the floating cages offshore.

References

Bibliography

* *

External links