Recently due to covid we have been travelling to places which are at drivable distance and also to places where we can avoid night stays. Most importantly we wanted a less crowded place too. During such trip, recently we had been to a place called Bhoothathankettu. It is a dam in Kerala. The name means Monster Fort. The dam is very close to my college from where I had completed my graduation. Nowadays the dam is closed because of which we can’t walk over it. But a new bridge has been built across the reservoir parallel to this dam. We can cross the bridge to reach an eco-tourism point. Nowadays you can see various eco-tourism picnic spots like Thenmala, Paniyeli Poru, Kapprikkadu, Gavi etc. The objective behind eco-tourism is to preserve the nature as it is. One can have a picturesque place that are silent & green. One can experience a rich collection of fauna & flora as well.
So, you can walk/trek through the forest listening to the flowing water for 1 km until you reach the banks of the river where you can see the so called Bhoothathankettu. The river never leaves you even if one can’t see it. You can spend hours sitting at the banks or climbing over the stones or even can have a dip where the river seems to be shallow. When we reached the river bank, we were mesmerised by the view. It started raining in a while after we reached and it was another pleasure to eyes. But we were not lucky enough to hop over the demonic stones as it was raining heavily & the stones seemed to be slippery. I will make sure I visit this place again during summers. We were welcomed by a guide who narrated a story/myth behind this which I felt interesting.
There is a temple which is considered to be the last shrine dedicated to Lord Shiva by Parashurama. It is known as Thrikkariyoor temple. So, the story is related to this temple. The narration goes as Lord Shiva was very happy with the devotees that he started to meditate there leaving his wife Parvati abode. Parvati after few days started searching for Lord Shiva & came to know that he is undergoing meditation at Thrikkariyoor. Parvati wanted to wake up Shiva. But she was afraid of Shiva’s anger & third eye. So, she asked the demons to block the water of the river so that the water level would rise ending up submerging the Thrikkariyoor temple. Demons who also knew about Shiva’s anger & third eye were reluctant as they cannot deny Parvati’s order either. And hence they came up with an idea that, they would block the water just till dawn. Lord Shiva, who was omnipotent came to know about this trickery, faked the approaching dawn by a rooster’s sound. Demons fled away leaving their work half way.
We can see the river flowing through the narrow gap which demons left before filling up. One can walk up over the boulders to see the gap during summer.
There is a bird sanctuary nearby as well. It is named after the famous ornithologist Salim Ali. It is ever green low land forest on the banks of Periyar river. We were welcomed by a squawking of a beautiful & big peacock which was sitting on a branch of a tree in the parking area. It made the sound whenever there was a visitor. Before taking the trail for bird watching, one can even visit animal rescue center which include Peacock, Python, Monkey, Civet etc & a beautiful butterfly park. Earlier there used to be boating as well. One can cover the sanctuary in 3 hours of trek.
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