Visit to Peechidam

On my 2007 Vacation, I wanted to visit some cool places in Kerala, but as time was limited and I want to meet lots of old friends, I was not able to make to most of the wishlist. But we were able to visit Peechi Dam in Thrissur Dist. Its located around 23 km from Thrissur City. This dam project started as an irrigation project, offers boating facilities at the reservoir.

Peechi is a good picnic spot. Peechi dam was constructed primarily to cater the drinking water needs of the population of Thrissur city. In addition it also serves as an irrigation dam, reaching out to the paddy fields in and around Thrissur city. Built across the Manali River, the dam is a vast catchment area of nearly 3,200 acres with extensive botanical gardens and cascading fountains offer numerous inviting avenues for tourists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peechi_Dam

Its nice to be here almost in any season, the monsoon attracts a lots of people to here, its the beauty of the fully filled dam water when the open shutters which attracts lots of visitors mostly from the near by places and districts to here. Boating is permitted in the reservoir and on lucky days one can see wild tuskers on the forested banks, part of which forms a reserved forest. Built across the Manali River, the dam is a vast catchment area of nearly 3,200 acres with extensive botanical gardens and cascading fountains offer numerous inviting avenues for tourists. One can see tuskers on the bank of this reservoir Peechi Wildlife Sanctuary, established in 1958 has got 125 sqkm area.

Route Map

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We started from Mannuthy a small town in the NH 47 which is around 7 kms far from Thrissur, as my friends Sajin, Pramod and Tony joined from there, we travelled in Tony’s car and I was visiting the place for 2nd time. I have been here during my college days and was not able to explore to the wild much. This time we were all ready to cross the limits and move in. As Sajin was familiar with the place and we  have around 6-7 hrs to explore the land, I was really thrilled.

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We started of to Peechi from Mannuhy around 2pm, taking the easiest route, it took some 40mins on a smooth drive, reached there before 2:45pm, the view of the roads with all the lush greenery and trees.. a great view.

We crossed some paddies and lots of greenery.

As we were reaching we can find the Kerala Forest Research Institute(KFRI) entrance,

Established in 1975, the Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI) is an institution of the Government of Kerala under its Science and Technology Department. The Institute is dedicated to research in tropical forestry, environment and biodiversity conservation. In 2003, when the State owned R & D institutions were re-organized to constitute the Kerala State Council for Science and Technology (KSCSTE), KFRI also became part of the latter. The Institute is managed by a Management Committee (MC) chaired by the Director. The Research Council (RC) comprising eminent scientists of the country overseas and assists in developing appropriate research policies; it also monitors the quality of research undertaken by the Institute.

We slowly moved in towards the Dam and we expected the dam to have some good amount of water after the monsoon. It was in the beginning of the Jan and the weather was not that hot, around 28-30deg.

As we passed we can see the gate of Kerala Engineering Research Institute Ref. (KERI)

We just posed for a shot..

Me too, in the picture, was a nice one.

We first went to the top view point from where you can see all the area and it was so beautiful and as it was windy bit, we really enjoyed, we saw the full area, some panoramic images are shared on last, please see that to have an experience of the same

The Dam was having a good amount of water and it was nice to see that water spreaded along area.

We were walking to the top view point which you can see in this picture, on the left like a temple structure, thats the view point from where you can see almost all the areas of this dam.

There are lots of trees and herbals in the garden along a with some nice canals through which the water flows to this area

The Dam has a catchment area of 3200 acres which is a diversified Botanical Garden. We decided to move down and explore a bit crossing some fences which was there

Ohhh Beauty…

Long view of a great dam..

We reached here crossing through the dams walkway

This is the other side view, the shutter side, and there is a garden setup here, which is good and we invaded the scene later by the time it was time to leave…

We took some break here before we move to the deeper areas near the dams catchment.

It was nice having chit chat and pulling each others legs, cool ….

A young squirrel was watching us.. Nop he was collecting his dinner food..

Yes its time to go wild… we started exploring the dams reserved forest crossing some of the fences which was already used as way to walk through, Sajin know this way, so we were less worried.

I just crossed to shoot Sajin as he was going cool to the limits and I got him on frame

Now Tony follows Sajin and reaches the small Tree.

There was lots of variety trees which was full of green leaves some with very thick leaves.

Sajin, just checking his skills which should be forgotten

We found a small stream along the way, very nice and cold water flows through this.

Now we have crossed another fence and more into the dense forest, we can feel that there is very less noise, each step we place is on top of the leaves which are very dry.

Dry leaves everywhere, and a complete silence, we were just experiencing the beauty of wilderness.

We have reached an area which gives some navigational signs, and Sajin was telling there used to be camps for students here some where in the middle of the forest. Most of which for the awareness of the students.

Tony was rewinding the route which we took, while Sajin mentioned that we will not be taking the same route on return, eh? ok what ever we need to leave this area in 1hr

I was just sitting for a snap here, we took around one hour to reach here it was around 5pm and we were just looking around as the water was not that steep

Some local people used to come and catch fish by using some explosives and also college students visits this place as to spend their bachelor parties, I think now most of the students do not care for such places, they prefer party clubs and discos. In our time we used to explore all possible places, especially for a great outdoor time and adventure trip, myself with my college friends, been to all the nearby dams and waterfalls.. Nostalgia ..

We saw some trees, which actually lives on the other, parasites, but both lives….

An old Bogain Villa Plant..

Here we are, we made a quick visit to the dam and the forest and around 6pm it was time to return, this was taken from the from of the dam, shutters was mostly closed during this season.

We found a small nozzle which was pumping the water to the canal for irrigational water, what a force..

Panorama Images :: Click to see large size