Taming the river wild - The New Indian Express

The waterway that brimmed with hectic activity once turned into a brook. For the life around it underwent a drastic change over the past couple of decades. The villagers from Chennithala were left grappling with the hard reality of a dying river in their efforts to complete a ritual on their Palliyodam (snakeboat) to the Aranmula Parthasarathi temple for the annual water festival. R Rakesh, one of the two representatives from the village to the Uthrattathi regatta who accompanies the boat on its annual 24-hour journey, recounted: “For the past 124 years, it has been an 82 km journey by water to the temple to participate in the Uthrattathi festival.

Budhanoor Grama Panchayat President Adv. P. Viswambhara Panicker

“For the women, it was not merely a job guarantee scheme,” panchayat president P Vishwambhara Panicker said. “Their work showed their dedication. They toiled with a social commitment. It was exemplary asset creation under the MGNREGS. Rs 72 lakh was earmarked for this.”

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Some Newspaper cuttings regarding Kuttamperoor River

Mathurbhumi - 20 March 2017 The Hindu - 23 March 2017 Malayala Manorama - 19 March 2017 Deshabhmani - 20 March 2017 Mathurbhumi - 22 March 2017 Mathurbhumi - 19 May 2017 Mathurbhumi - 18 March 2017

A river reborn: How 700 workers cleaned a once-still river in Kerala’s Alappuzha - The News Minute

700 people in 70 days gave life to the dead river. Kuttemperoor river in Kerala was dead for 10 long years. But not any more. A tributary of Pampa and Achankovil rivers, Kuttemperoor has now had a rebirth, thanks to the efforts of 700 workers for 70 days. Environmentalists have always said that any water body can be given a rebirth despite how severe its pollution problems are, or how near it is to death, and Kuttemperoor will go down in history as an example for this. Labourers cleaning the river Kuttemperoor before it died At one point, Kuttemperoor was Budhanoor’s lifeline. The residents of the village never experienced drinking water crisis, nor did they have a shortage of water for irrigation. In fact, the river was a source for irrigation for about 25,000 acres of paddy fields. Back then, the river was also used by local traders to transport their goods. It also helped control the flood in many places, because when Pamba and Achankovil overflowed...

In Kerala, 700 People Worked 70 Days to Revive a River Considered ‘Dead’ for over a Decade!

The Kuttamperoor stream connecting the Pampa and Achankovil rivers, had been a nearly stagnant, shrunken cesspool of dumped waste and weeds for more than a decade. Some weeks ago, it was resuscitated as a flowing river, thanks to the will of the Budhanur gram panchayat in Alappuzha district, and the commitment of 700 local men and women who worked to bring the river back to life under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The Kuttamperoor was once a full 12 kilometres long and, at places, over 100 feet wide. The river originates from Achankovil at Ulunthi, near Mavelikkara, and flows through Ennackad, Budhanur, Kuttamperoor, Mannar, and Pandanad before merging with the Pampa at Nakkida near Parumala in Pathanamthitta district. According to legend, it was originally a man-made canal on which wide-bodied vessels known as kettuvallams carried items of trade and daily requirement. The river irrigated 2,000 acres of paddy fields, and was t...

Kuttamperoor River

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