Periyar River

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Periyar
Location map of the Periyar
Origin	Sivagiri Hills on Western Ghats
Mouth	Arabian Sea
Basin countries	India
Length	300 km (244 km in Kerala)
Source elevation	1830 m
Avg. discharge	m³/s
Basin area	5396 km² (5284 km² in Kerala)

For other uses, see Periyar (disambiguation).

The Periyar River is the longest river in the state of Kerala, India, with a length of 244 km. The river is also known as The lifeline of Kerala as it is one of the few perennial rivers of Kerala. It provides drinking water for major towns.^[1]

The Idukki Dam has been built across the river and generates a significant proportion of electrical power for the state. This is a concrete, double curvature parabolic, thin arc dam.^[2]

1 Origin and Path
2 The Idduki Dam
3 Pollution
4 See also
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Origin and Path

Periyar river view at Bhoothathankettu near Kothamangalam

Idukki Dam across the Periyar river

The Periyar's source is in the Western Ghats range in the Kerala state.Periyar is actually one of the few major rivers in Kerala which flow completely within the state.It flows north through Periyar National Park into Periyar Lake, an artificial reservoir created in 1895 by the construction of a dam across the river. The lake has an area of 55 km². Water is diverted from the lake into the Vaigai River of Tamil Nadu via a tunnel through the Western Ghats.

From the lake the river flows northwest through the village of Neeleswaram into Vembanad Lake and on the Arabian Sea coast. Its largest tributaries are the Muthirapuzha River, Mullayar River, Cheruthoni River, Perinjankutti River and the Edamala River.

The Periyar is the major water resource for five drought prone districts of Tamil Nadu,including Theni, Madurai and Ramanathapuram. The dam built is maintained by Tamil Nadu PWD (public works department) and it is under the control of Tamil Nadu government for 999 years according to a pact between the governments of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.This deal was inked during the British raj,with Travancore kingdom and the British colonial rulers representing Tamil Nadu

[edit] The Idduki Dam

The generators at the Idukki Dam have a power output 210 MW, and can generate pumped-storage hydroelectricity. In the daytime the output from the dam is utilitised to the full. During the night, when consumer demands are a half of less of daytime use, spare capacity is used to pump water upstream to the dam. On the following day the stored energy is then available to produce electricity to meet peak demand.

[edit] Pollution

In the later parts of its journey to the Arabian Sea, the Periyar becomes heavily polluted. Various industries in the Eloor industrial zone discharge their waste into it. Greenpeace India suggests that in this region the river has been turned into "a cesspool of toxins, which have alarming levels of deadly poisons like DDT, endosulfan, hexa and trivalent chromium, lead, cyanide, BHC."^[3]