Pothundi Dam is an irrigation dam near Pothundi village in the Palakkad district of Kerala state, India. Constructed in the 19th century, it is considered one of the oldest dams in India. It provides irrigation to an area of 5470 ha in the Palakkad district and drinking water supply to the Nemmara, Ayalur, Melarcode Panchayat. An unusual feature of the earth dam is the core wall, which is built with a mixture of jaggery and quick lime. A popular festival held on the shores of the reservoir is known as the Nemmara Vallengi Vela Festival.

Topography

The dam is built in the Pothundy village across the Meenichiladipuzha and Padipuzha rivers, which are tributaries of the Aylampuzha river, about 400 m upstream of the confluence, in the backdrop of the Nelliampathi hills. It drains a catchment area of 31 km2 at Full Reservoir Level, which is thickly forested with teak wood trees. The dam is in the Chittur taluk, about 8 km from Nemmara and 42 km from Palakkad and 17 km from Nelliampathi.

History

The dam, built in the 19th century for irrigation, was developed as a medium irrigation project completed in 1971 at a cost of Rs.23.425 million. The dam also provides water supply, and the reservoir has been developed as an important inland fisheries project.

Features

The dam is an earth-filled structure built to a height of 32.61 m and a length of 1680 m. The gross storage capacity of the reservoir is 50914000 m3 and the live storage, excluding dead storage, is 43900000 m3. It has a spillway section to route the designed flood discharge. The irrigation component of the project, completed in 1971, consists of a 10 km long right bank canal and an 8 km left bank canal, which provides irrigation to an area of 5465 ha in the Chittur and Alathur taluks. In view of favorable soil conditions, the irrigation practice under this project is a rice-based system in the Palghat plains. The storage from the reservoir is also utilized to the extent of 15380000 m3 for providing drinking water supply to Nemmara and Ayalure villages. Reservoir fishing is well developed and covers an area of 363 ha. The various species of river fishes found in the reservoir are murrel, catfish, tilapia, rohu (Labeo rohita), barbus, eel, common carp (Cyprinus carpio), mrigal, gourami, and catla. According to FAO statistics, the stocking is 1.241 million fingerlings per year with stocking rate of 684 fingerlings per ha per year. The fisheries development in the reservoir has been done under the Indo-German Reservoir Fisheries Development Project. According to the State Fisheries Department, the fish catch was about 7057 kg per year during 1992–93 with a yield of 19.4 per ha. The production units proposed under this project were broodfish stock, mini-hatchery, and rearing components, apart from the pens to be set up in the reservoir periphery and the floating cages offshore.