A river’s journey

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A river’s journey

“Rising along the eastern slopes of the Agasthyamalai range of the Western Ghats, the Tamirabarani river travels a short 125 kilometres before reaching the Gulf of Mannar near Punnaikayal. Passing through Tirunelveli and Thoothukkudi districts in Tamil Nadu, it spells life for those in the dry and arid plains along this part of the south-eastern coast of India. …”

The Karayar river, an important tributary of the Tamarabarani…On the banks is an important and popular temple here
Pilgrims drying their clothes by the temple on the banks of the river
The tadpole of this frog species grows entirely on the mossy wet slopes of the mountains here. The tail falls off and the tiny frogs fall to the ground to continue life
A heronary of wild birds in a temple complex by the river in the plains
Pilgrims cross the river in the plains, far from the forests and the mountains. Here in the plains the river is a crucial part of life and culture
The famous mats of Pattimadai are made from a special species of grass that grows in the river bed in the plains

 

Continuing from my last post on the forests of KMTR, in India’s southern western ghats, here is a feature on the River Tamabarani that originates in these mountains – the journey of a river from source to the sea, from the canopy to the coast and the many things that happen along the way…This feature appeared in The Hindu Sunday Magazine on October 18, 2015, and really really underlines the nature’s infrastructure theme for me in more ways than one. For the full text and more pics click here

 

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About Pankaj Sekhsaria

Pankaj Sekhsaria is author of 'The Last Wave', (http://tinyurl.com/njatxm2) a novel based in the Andaman islands of India. He is also a journalist, photographer and researcher with four books, a dozen peer reviewed papers and nearly 200 newspaper and magazine articles to his credit. He is currently a doctoral candidate in Science and Technology Studies (STS) at Maastricht University Science and Technology Studies (MUSTS). His Phd research involves studying the techno-scientific practices inside nanotechnology labs in India to understand and articulate the idea of a 'culture of innovation'

3 thoughts on “A river’s journey”

  1. “Rising along the eastern slopes of the Agasthyamalai range of the Western Ghats, the Tamirabarani river travels a short 125 kilometres before reaching the Gulf of Mannar near Punnaikayal. Passing through Tirunelveli and Thoothukkudi districts in Tamil Nadu, it spells life for those in the dry and arid plains along this part of the south-eastern coast of India. …”

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  2. also how religious senses of the purifying/life-sustaining qualities of water play out with the scientific realities of pollution and the global warming/drying of the mountain sources of rivers, thanks

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  3. Great pictures once again — can you tell us more about the temple infrastructure along the river, and the nature/infrastructure relationship between them?

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