KODAIKANAL LAKE (TAMIL NADU)
Nestling in the verdant folds on the southern crest of the Western Ghat’s Palani Hills the hill town of Kodaikanal is situated at an altitude of 2133 meters above sea level. In Tamil language Kodaikanal means the “gift of the forest”. Before American missionaries founded the town in 1845, indigenous ethnic community of Pallyans lived and roamed these heavily wooded hills. The pride of Kodaikanal and the hills around it is the “Kurinji” flower (Strobilanthes species). It flowers in a cycle of 12 years and when it blooms a blue-mauve carpet sheaths the hillsides.
The heart of today’s Kodaikanal is the lake. However, when the first two bungalows were built in 1845, there was no lake. In 1863, Sir Vere Henry Levinge, an Irishman and Collector of Madurai, created the lake by building a dam at the eastern end of marshy valley at Kodaikanal’s center. It formed a starfish shaped lake that is the town’s main attraction. The lake was once full of a variety of fish including carp. Today, the diversity of fish and its population have drastically declined.
Kodaikanal Lake faces many problems. The silting, a major problem, has reduced its depth to 10 meters at the centre and much less at the periphery. Seepage from soak-pit toilets in houses and hotels around the lake is another problem. Urine run-off from horses and ponies stabled around the lake for joyride by tourists is also a major polluting source. Littering by tourists and washing of vehicles in the lake also contribute to its pollution. The leakage of mercury from a factory manufacturing clinical thermometer (since closed) is reported to have resulted in mercury contamination of the lake’s sediments.
Coordinator: R Kannan, President, Palni Hills Conservation Council, Kodaikanal; Email: kannan58@gmail.com.
