Kulathupuzha

Kulathupuzha
Kulathupuzha
Panchayat 'A' Grade
	Kulathupuzha Sastha temple
	Kulathupuzha Location in Kerala, India Kulathupuzha Kulathupuzha (India)
	Coordinates: 8°54′30″N 77°03′20″E / 8.9082295°N 77.055501°E
Country	India
State	Kerala
District	Kollam
Government
• Type	Gram panchayat
Area
• Total	424.06 km2 (163.73 sq mi)
Population (2001)
• Total	33,271
• Density	78/km2 (200/sq mi)
Languages
• Official	Malayalam, English
Time zone	UTC+5:30 (IST)
PIN	691310
Vehicle registration	KL-25
Nearest city	Punalur
Literacy	86.62%

Kulathupuzha is a village in the eastern part of Kollam district of Kerala state, India. This town is situated on the Thiruvananthapuram – Shenkottai SH2 road and Thiruvananthapuram-kasaragod "SH-59" State Highway-59. Kulathupuzha is 63 km away from Thiruvananthapuram and 58 km away from Kollam. Thenmala eco tourism is just 9 km away. It is one of the most modern dairy farms situated in Kulathupuzha i.e. indo Swiss project.^[1]

Kulathupuzha is the birthplace of the Malayalam music legend Raveendran. It is famous for Sastha temple here, its river fishes and pristine forest with exotic Myristica swamps, Rehabilitation Rubber plantation for Sri Lankan refugees.

Kulathupuzha Temple

Kulathupuzha is well known for the Sastha temple. The presiding deity at the Kulathupuzha Temple is known as Bala Sastha who is Lord Hariharaputra. The Vishu Mahotsavam in April is the most important festival of this temple. The temple legend is intertwined with fishes in nearby river.^{[citation needed]}

Kulathupuzha Reserve Forest

Kulathupuzha forms a part of the southern most reserve forests of the State, falling in the SOI sheet No. 58 H/1. Kulathupuzha reserve covers an area under 1000 km². Its forest constitutes predominantly of tropical wet - and semi - evergreens and moist deciduous types. Apart from settlements, some parts are occupied by Forest departmental plantations mainly of teak, eucalyptus and acacia. The plantations are grown by planting saplings on cleared natural forests. Plantations are raised to sustain and supplement the timber needs of a few industries in the State. popularly known as the Rakoodu Estate (Rock Wood Estate) is near Kulathupuzha. Senthurini Wilde Life Sanctuary is near Kulathupuzha. Kallar estate is one of the famous tea estates left over from British ruling times. A British bungalows is there.

Kulathupuzha forests have the largest variety of exotic Myristica Swamp freshwater variety swamp in Kerala. Besides Kulathupuzha it is found in India only at Idukki Uttara Kannada and Shivaliks Himalayas.

Also the forest is the origin of Ithikara and Kallada rivers.

Transport

Road

Connected with all major towns nearby by Roads. KSRTC and private buses connect the town to Trivandrum-Kollam-Thenkasi and Punalur. KSRTC have one of Kerala's biggest depot here. It is the largest depot in Kollam District

Railway

Nearest Rail head Punalur and railway station just 9 kilometers in Thenmala.

Airport

Nearest Airport is at Trivandrum.

High-Tech Dairy Farm

Hi-tech dairy farm at Kulathupuzha established by KLDB is the first hi-tech dairy farm in India under government sector. It will be a model hi-tech bull mother dairy farm with all the latest technologies on feeding, milking, shed management and recording practices as a model in the state for production of bull calves for breeding programme and supply of high producing females calves to farmers by importing Embryos, Frozen Semen, and Sexed semen.

Sanjeevani Vanam Kulathupuzha

It is a conservation site of medicinal plants managed by Kerala Forest Department, Kollam Social Forestry Division. About 400 rare, endemic and indigenous medicinal species are conserved and protected here. All the species are well labelled so as to get basic information about the plant and its usage. Ayurveda students, college students, local medical practitioners and common people can make use of this medicinal garden. Now the garden is renovated and a well organised demonstration plot is created here. moreover now the visitors can enjoy a one kilometer light trekking through the natural forest which is the part of the garden.

Economy

Bharatheepuram oil palm plantation is one of the most important agricultural resources started in the year 1975 .

Rehabilitation Plantation Limited is also one of the most important agricultural resource. Indoswiss project is a major bull sperm production in kerala. Daily produce milk and sail through from there.

References

^ "Kulathupuzha grama panchayath - general information". lsgkerala.in. Retrieved 17 November 2016.

[1] "Kulathupuzha grama panchayath - general information". lsgkerala.in. Retrieved 17 November 2016.

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