Palar (

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

: ''பாலாறு'' pālāṟu �paːlaːɾu literally "milk river") is a river of southern India. It rises in the Nandi Hills in Chikkaballapura district of

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

state, and flows in Karnataka, in

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

and in

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

before reaching its confluence into the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. Geographically it is positioned between the Indian subcontinent and the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese peninsula, located below the Bengal region. Many South Asian and Southe ...

at Vayalur about south of

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

. It flows as an underground river for a long distance only to emerge near Bethamangala town, from where, gathering water and speed, it flows eastward down the

Deccan Plateau The Deccan is a plateau extending over an area of and occupies the majority of the Indian peninsula. It stretches from the Satpura Range, Satpura and Vindhya Ranges in the north to the northern fringes of Tamil Nadu in the south. It is bound ...

. The Towns of Bethamangala, Santhipuram, Kuppam, Mottur, Ramanaickenpet, Vaniyambadi, Ambur, Melpatti,

Gudiyatham Gudiyetram, colloquially Gudiyattam (; also called as Gudiyatham) is a municipality in Vellore district in the States and territories of India, state of Tamil Nadu in India. It lies between Bangalore and Chennai and the district of Vellore is ...

, Pallikonda, Anpoondi, Melmonavoor,

Vellore Vellore ( ), also spelled Velur, is a sprawling city and the administrative headquarters of Vellore district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Palar River and surrounded by the Javadi Hills in the northeastern ...

, Katpadi, Melvisharam, Arcot,

Ranipet Ranipet (lit. Queen's colony) is an industrial town and the administrative headquarters of Ranipet district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the Northern banks of the Palar River. It is a Tri-City with the adjacent municipali ...

, Walajapet,

Kanchipuram Kanchipuram (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: '; ), also known as Kanjeevaram, is a stand alone city corporation, satellite nodal city of Chennai in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu in the Tondaimandalam region, from ...

, Walajabad,

Chengalpattu Chengalpattu, previously known as Chingleput or Chengalpet, is a town and the headquarters of Chengalpattu district of the state Tamil Nadu, India. The town is located near to the industrial and IT hub. It is the headquarters of the district a ...

, Kalpakkam, and Lattur are located on the banks of the Palar River. Of the seven tributaries, the chief tributary is the Cheyyar River. Palar river water from Palar anicut is diverted to the

Poondi reservoir ''Sathyamoorthy Saagar'', also known as Poondy Reservoir, is the reservoir constructed across Kosasthalaiyar River, ''Kotralai'' (alias) ''Kosasthalai'' River in Tiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu state in India. It acts as the important drinking ...

located in the Kosasthalaiyar River basin and to Chembarambakkam Lake located in the Adayar River basin. These two reservoirs are major water supply points to

city. After commissioning of the Telugu Ganga project to supply nearly per day of

Krishna River The Krishna River in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau is the third-longest in India, after the Ganga, Ganga and Godavari. It is also the fourth-largest in terms of water inflows and river basin area in India, after the Ganga, Indus and Godav ...

water to the Chennai city, the dependence on Palar river water has reduced drastically. Source of Palar

Controversial dam

The Andhra Pradesh Government is constructing an

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

across the Palar river at Ganeshpuram, near Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh which has caused agitation among the people of the five northern districts of Tamil Nadu, namely

, Kancheepuram, Tiruvannamalai,

Thiruvallur Tiruvallur is a Grade I municipality in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of Coovum river about from downtown Chennai ( Madras) in the western part of the Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA). It is a satellite tow ...

and

benefitted by the river. Tamil Nadu's former Chief Minister Jayalalitha voiced her opposition to this proposal and said "Palar is an inter-state river and was also one of the rivers mentioned in Schedule A annexed to the 1892 agreement which is in force as per Interstate River Water Disputes Act 1956. As per a clause of the agreement, the upstream state should not build any new dam or any structure to obstruct, divert, or store waters of the rivers without the consent of the downstream state". The average rainfall in the entire Palar river basin is low. This river basin suffers from frequent droughts and there has been no full scale flow for the past 10 years. However, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have mitigated the frequent recurrence of droughts by building numerous minor and medium irrigation tanks. This has improved the availability of water for surface as well as ground water irrigation. As per the wet land atlas of India., the manmade wet lands are covering extensive area (3% to 5%) in the districts of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu covering Palar river basin. Whereas the Palar basin in Andhra Pradesh is not well covered by wet lands which implies that the river water usage in Andhra Pradesh is not up to the mark compared to Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. In the year 1892 when the Palar waters agreement was made, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh were part of then Madras Presidency. The 1892 agreement on Palar river water sharing is applicable between Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh since the boundary line in Palar river basin between

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency or Madras Province, officially called the Presidency of Fort St. George until 1937, was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India and later the Dominion of India. At its greatest extent, the presidency i ...

and

Mysore kingdom The Kingdom of Mysore was a geopolitical realm in South India, southern India founded in around 1399 in the vicinity of the modern-day city of Mysore and prevailed until 1950. The territorial boundaries and the form of government transmuted su ...

is now part of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh states.

Documentary

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

called ''En Peyar Palar'' produced by Social Action Movement and Water Rights Protection Group,

and released on 30 June 2008 chronicles the plight of the river from its origin in

till it joins

. The 85-minute documentary delves into how activities such as sand

quarrying A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to manage their s ...

and discharge of industrial effluents are sucking the life out of one of Tamil Nadu's prime sources of drinking water. It was directed by R.R. Srinivasan. This river is so important for irrigation in the north and south Arcot districts of Tamil Nadu, but it flows a meager distance of in Andhra Pradesh, where the Palar river had been seen dry for almost 20 years. Palar has been home for mud robbery and other illegal activities.

Karnataka

In the State of Karnataka Palar River Originates from s Agrahara lake(kolar district of Karnataka). There are various reservoirs and check dams across the river to store the Water, While two of the most significant of them are the two Consecutive dams that are back to back with in seven Kilometers. The reservoir of Bethamangala and The Reservoir of the Ramasagara also called as Bukkasagara. The reservoir of Bethamangala had been the main source of Drinking water to the Kolar Gold Fields. And it is also a Boating area. While the second one and the largest of all reservoirs is the reservoir of the Ramasagara, which holds numerous temples at this spot. It is known famous for its fisheries till the year 2005. after which the Reservoir never got filled more than 40 percent of its capacity. The period from 2006 to the year of 2017 September the fate of the Palar river in this part was almost dry. The heavy rains in the hinterland and the basin of the palar river has brought the Bethamangala Reservoir back to its past glory, as of 6 October 2017 the Reservoir of Bethamangala is one feet deficit to its full capacity, while later Ramasagara Reservoir is just 15 percent filled and mostly dry, holds double the capacity of the former. A few famous places like the Avani, Bangaru tirupati, Vijeyendra Swamy Temple, Someshwara Swamy temple, lies in these region, with in twenty kilometers of the epicentre Bethamangala.

Cities on the river

Kaliappettai is located on the banks of the river. The town of Bethamangala, village of Ramasagara, Bangaru Tirupati (Guttahalli). This region also consists two reservoirs one at Bethamangala and the largest in Karnataka at the Ramasagara.

References

External links

The Palar research program
by French

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...