KUTRALAM AND MORE....

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KUTRALAM and more....

Oh wow…. the name itself will make the ones who have been there to plan a trip once atleast. This name “KUTRALAM” is quite famous in South India and located in Tamil Nadu.

This tourist destination is the house of many waterfalls in Tamil Nadu in the western ghats and at the border of Kerala. All these waterfalls starts pouring once the monsoon sets itself in Kerala.


THIRUKUTRALAM

Kutralam, ‘Pazhaya Kutralam’ means ‘OLD KUTRALAM’, Five Falls, Sitraruvi and Puliyaruvi are the list of famous waterfalls in this place and quite close to each other in kilo metres.


FIVE FALLS...

Near the Kutralam waterfalls you can see the famous Kutrala Nadhar Temple. As an interesting information…..Lord Siva is said to be in a blissful dance – ANANDHA THAANDAVAM, the performance of which is producing the cosmic energy to all living species on the Earth. This is the reason that every particle of earth is said to be set in vibration within. Dancing Lord Siva is called as NATRAJA. In all, there are 5 Sabhai’s – STAGES for his performance as per the Hindu Mythology.


THIRUKUTRALANADHAR TEMPLE - THE CHITHRA SABHAI OF LORD NATARAJA

I am listing it below to give some finer details…

CITY - Order of the Sabhai - Name of the Sabhai

KUTRALAM - 5 - Chithra Sabhai (Art)
MADURAI - 3 - Velli Sabhai (Silver)
THIRUVALANGADU - 1 - Rathina Sabhai (one of the gem stone)
CHIDAMBARAM - 2 - Por Sabhai (gold)
THIRUNELVELI - 4 - Thamira Sabhai (Bronze)

Above the Kutralam falls, in the hills are a number of falls which has to be approached through many risky routes and access to which was closed now since some government project work is going on here. Above kutralam, walking for about 1 hour, one can reach Shenbagadhevi waterfalls – this is actually the waterfall that runs further to form Kutralam downhills, joining with few more streams.

Above Shenbagadhevi, if you walk into the forests, then we can reach the riskiest waterfall – Thenaruvi – which means “honey falls”. Honey falls is a majestic waterfall falling from top of the hills into the well bounded mountain walls – exactly looking like majestic walls formed by the mountains and forming a very big lake. This is named ‘Honey’ Falls because you can see honey combs built all around these mountains and honey will be tripping into the Lake formed by the waterfalls. One can only enjoy the view of the waterfall and cannot even think of taking a dip in the lake formed before the waterfall as it is not approachable for anybody. Still you can go across the river taking the risk of walking through huge rocks lying on the heavy current stream. Going further above the Thenaruvi is very risky as you still have to go into the deeps of the forest through risky routes completely. Many of the people who had set themselves on this trip to find the source for the Thenaruvi gets killed absorbed somewhere in the water stream or falling down from the hill tops/ huge rocks, etc.

What’s more and near to this destination – KUTRALAM?

A lot and lot…traveling into Kerala which will take about 1 and ½ hours of travel, we can reach another majestic waterfall called as PALARUVI – means ‘MILK FALLS’. As the name depicts, this waterfall will absolutely look like milk flowing from the top of the hill and is too lengthy comparing with any other waterfall I have seen. This waterfall is maintained by the Kerala Government.


PAALARUVI....THE MILK FALLS....


PAALARUVI....ANOTHER ANGLE...

Straight opposite to the direction of the Paalaruvi and into Tamil Nadu side for about an hour, we can reach AGASTHIYAR FALLS. This is the waterfall formed in River ‘TAMARABARANI’. In Tamil ‘TAMARA’ means Lotus, BARANI is a song form of Tamil Literature which are poems written in praise. This waterfall is named after the famous sage AGASTHIYR, one of the top most 18 Siddhas as he was observing penance and living in these hills. Adjacent to the Agasthiyar waterfalls one can enjoy the excellent view of the broad Tamarabarani river flowing through the town. Before we move towards the Agasthiyar Falls comes the Famous Lord Siva Temple – PAPANASAM – meaning ‘destroyer of all sins’.


TAMARABARANI.....


PAPANASAM TEMPLE.....

We can go above in the hills to reach a place called as KARAIYARU. This is where we have the PAPANASAM DAM. This is an excellent place in the forest and you will see forest department signages everywhere alerting us about the type of animals in the forest. In the lake formed by the Dam, boating is operated by the Government of Tamil Nadu – which is actually with no safety mechanisms. These boats will take people to another part of the Lake – as you approach near this destination, you will be seeing a majestic waterfall in the hills little above the Lakeshore. Boats will stop here and the tourists can walk for about 1.5 km to reach this waterfall. There are proper paths available to reach this waterfall. This waterfall is called as PAANA THEERTHAM. Paana Theertham is such a majestic waterfall with damn cool water flowing which I can compare to ten times cold as of the Kutralam water. One more important thing to be noticed is just a small leaf of this waterfall is what is available to be enjoyed by the tourists – which is itself quite broad enough to accommodate more number of tourists. This and the rest of the waterfall makes a pond before it which has swirls on it and it is completely restricted for anybody to step into this lake. This pond is so deep and has swirl and water fills this to flow further down. Many accidental deaths have happened in this pond. Just a step or two in the pond for photographs and slippery rocks makes one fall down and drowns in the deeps of ponds and swirl.


DAM AND LAKE....BOATS AND TOURIST IN CUE...


PAANA THEERTHAM BEFORE REACHING THE LAKESHORE....


PAANA THEERTHAM...A LITTLE CLOSER...


After the bath in PAANA THEERTHAM, we can come down to catch our boat and way back to the other part of the Lakeshore. Many of the boat riders had reported saying that Crocodiles are seen in the lakeshore in the early mornings.