Save Oonjappara Aqueduct !!!

-

This summer is hotter than any other summer I have experienced. Its getting hotter day by day. The trip to Inchathotty was exhaustipating. While kayakking itself was an amazing experience, the heat was unbearable. The trip to Inchathotty and back was a hellride under the sun. Thats when we (me and Sanesh) decided to visit Oonjappara aqueduct.

Its an overnight sensation which was made famous by social media.
The aqueduct went viral first through Whatsapp and later on facebook and other platforms.
People from all over Kerala has been pouring down hear to escape the summer heat for a while. Even though water flows throughout the year there is a reasonable hike in tourists during summer. This has led to a few problems of concern.

The aqueduct was first commissioned in 1962 under the Periyar Valley irrigation project to let water from Bhoothathankettu Dam to nearby villages for irrigation and drinking water purpose. The water through the aqueduct replenishes the groundwater resources around the locality.
The aqueduct passes through Keerappara and Oonjappara into the nearby villages.

With the emergence of Oonjappara as a tourist destination people have been clogging from different walks of life.
The aqueduct itself is not maintained properly and poses a great risk to the tourists. Moreover there have been reports of polluting the water body and nearby resources. Locals have reported destruction of crossbars near Pachira aqueduct by the tourists.
With the locals agitated and forming Janakeeya Samithi to save the aqueduct its possible that Oonjappara will be closed down for tourists.

The aqueduct needs to be properly maintained and people are now calling for steel rods to be used to cover the aqueduct and use it for the original purpose it was intended for.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Offbeat to Pollachi

-
Image
We (me and my friend Romin) wanted to do a trip for a long time. Eventually he came up with a plan for a two day trip on his bike (gixxer). So on the last morning of november we packed our small bag and started off from Piravom by 7 am. We were not in a hurry and planned to do the first 80 km to Athirappilly waterfalls slowly. So we took a detour from the highway and hit the inroads making our way through kodanad through the Kalady rubber plantations into the Athirappilyy estate road. It was fairly pleasant as we there was no traffic whatsoever. We stopped at a small hotel to have our breakfast and eventually reached the waterfalls by 11.30. We were running late as we were planning to cross into tamilnadu by 4 pm. So we took a quick tour of the falls and had a healthy lunch and was off to athirappilly vazhachal. It was 1.30pm when we crossed vazhachal checkpost into the forest. We had to make our way through the forest to malakkapara(tamilnadu checkpost) which was 50 kms. It was doa...
Read more

Kayakking at Inchathotty

-
Image
It was a surprise call from Sanesh. I was still on bed while he called. He was always up for short trips, so I knew something was up.  He wanted to go for Kayakking. I knew kayakking was expensive. But he said he knew a place where we could do kayakking cheaply. So by 10 am he picked me up on his battered old Activa and off we went. Ichathotty was our destination. A small village at the farthest end of ernakulam district howering near to Bhoothathankettu Dam. It wasnt a pleasant ride because sun out in its fulls glory.  It was about 40-45kms ride from piravom. We made it in a modest one hour margin. Kayaking is a watersport that uses a kayak for moving across water. It is distinguished from canoeing by the sitting position of the paddler and the number of blades on the paddle. A kayak is a low-to-the-water, canoe-like boat in which the paddler sits facing forward, legs in front, using a double-bladed paddle to pull front-to-back on one side and t...
Read more