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Upputhara | |
|---|---|
village | |
  Upputhara Location in Kerala, India  Upputhara Upputhara (India) | |
| Coordinates: 9°41′0″N77°1′0″E / 9.68333°N 77.01667°E Coordinates: 9°41′0″N77°1′0″E / 9.68333°N 77.01667°E | |
| Country |  |
| State | Kerala |
| District | Idukki |
| Government | |
| • Type | Panchayath |
| • Body | Upputhara grama panchayath |
| Area | |
| • Total | 135 km2 (52 sq mi) |
| Population (2001) | |
| • Total | 20,596 |
| • Density | 150/km2 (400/sq mi) |
| Languages | |
| • Official | Malayalam, English |
| Time zone | UTC+5:30 (IST) |
| PIN | 685505 |
| Vehicle registration | KL-37 |
| Nearest city | Kattappana |
Upputhara is a village in Idukki district in the Indian state of Kerala. Upputhara panchayat, belonging to the block panchayat of Kattappana, is situated in the southern part of Idukki district in the Peermade taluk. The panchayat is bordered by the Periyar River in the east, the Meenmutti Lake in the west, the Chinnar River and the Karintharuvi River in the south and the Kakkathode protected forests in the north. Upputhara is located in the Western Ghats region of Kerala that borders on the neighbouring State of Tamil Nadu. Geographically, Upputhara is divided into six types of land forms; mountains, highly steep land, moderately steep land, valleys, marshy lands and rocky lands. Of these six land forms, about 40 percent of the total area is classified under valleys. Next in importance are marshy lands, slightly steep land, mountains, very steep land and rocky lands, in that order. Valleys and marshy lands together accounted for 62 percent of the area. Owing to the presence of large tracts of land with undulating topography, agriculture in Upputhara is faced with several challenges such as soil erosion.
Idukki is one of the 14 districts of Kerala state, India, created on 26 January 1972 bifurcating Kottayam District. At that time, the district headquarters was at Kottayam. In June 1976 it was moved to Painavu. Idukki lies in the Western Ghats of Kerala. Idukki is the second largest district in area but has the lowest population density. Idukki has a vast forest reserve area; more than a half of the district is covered by forests. The urban areas are densely populated whereas villages are sparsely populated. Idukki is also known as the spice garden of Kerala.
India is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.
Kerala is a state on the southwestern Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions. Spread over 38,863 km2 (15,005 sq mi), Kerala is the twenty-third largest Indian state by area. It is bordered by Karnataka to the north and northeast, Tamil Nadu to the east and south, and the Lakshadweep Sea to the west. With 33,387,677 inhabitants as per the 2011 Census, Kerala is the thirteenth-largest Indian state by population. It is divided into 14 districts with the capital being Thiruvananthapuram. Malayalam is the most widely spoken language and is also the official language of the state.
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The entire region around Upputhara remained uninhabited till about the early part of the 20th century. Upputhara was one of the regions to which migration of farmers from other parts of Kerala = took place. A group of seven Christian households came to Upputhara in 1910 from the Meenachil taluk of Kottayam district after acquiring licence from the Government of Travancore to establish tea plantations. The first migration to begin cultivation of crops outside the plantation segment took place, however, only later by the mid-1930s.
A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word century comes from the Latin centum, meaning one hundred. Century is sometimes abbreviated as c.
Christians are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words Christ and Christian derive from the Koine Greek title Christós (Χριστός), a translation of the Biblical Hebrew term mashiach (מָשִׁיחַ).
Meenachil is the north-eastern region of Kottayam district in Kerala, south India. The name originates from Meenakshi the Dravidian goddess. Palai is the main city in Meenachil. The arterial river of the district is also named Meenachil. The river finds mention in Arundhati Roy's Booker Prize-winning novel, The God of Small Things.
This type of migration to regions outside the plantation segment was mainly steered by a policy of the Government of Travancore to distribute pattas (possession rights) to migrant farmers in previously uninhabited areas. The largest flow of migrants into Upputhara and its surrounding regions took place in the 1950s.
The Kingdom of Travancore (Thiruvithamkoor) was an Indian kingdom from 1500 until 1949. It was ruled by the Travancore Royal Family from Padmanabhapuram, and later Thiruvananthapuram. At its zenith, the kingdom covered most of modern-day central and southern Kerala with the Thachudaya Kaimal's enclave of Irinjalakuda Koodalmanikkam temple in the neighbouring Kingdom of Cochin, as well as the district of Kanyakumari, now in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The official flag of the state was red with a dextrally-coiled silver conch shell at its center. In the early 19th century, the kingdom became a princely state of the British Empire. The Travancore Government took many progressive steps on the socio-economic front and during the reign of Maharajah Sri Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, Travancore became the second most prosperous princely state in British India, with reputed achievements in education, political administration, public work and social reforms. In 1903-1904 the total revenue of the state was Rs.1,02,01,900.
Farmers who migrated into Upputhara after the 1930s were primarily involved in the cultivation of coffee, pepper and a few tuber intercrops. Tea was cultivated only in large plantations. From the cultivation of only a few crops in the 1950s, the cropping pattern in Upputhara became diversified significantly by the 1990s. Data for the panchayat for the year 1996-97 shows that the cultivation of tea accounts for the largest area – about 59 per cent of the gross cropped area. Pepper, cultivated in 17 per cent of the gross cropped area, is the second most important crop in terms of cultivated area. Coffee (8.1 percent of the gross cropped area) and cardamom (4 percent of the gross cropped area) are the other main crops. Cultivation of banana, tapioca and coconut are also practised. . [1] [2] [3]
Human migration is the movement of people from one place to another with the intentions of settling, permanently or temporarily at a new location. The movement is often over long distances and from one country to another, but internal migration is also possible; indeed, this is the dominant form globally. People may migrate as individuals, in family units or in large groups.
Coffee is a brewed drink prepared from roasted coffee beans, the seeds of berries from certain Coffea species. The genus Coffea is native to tropical Africa and Madagascar, the Comoros, Mauritius, and Réunion in the Indian Ocean. Coffee plants are now cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in the equatorial regions of the Americas, Southeast Asia, Indian subcontinent, and Africa. The two most commonly grown are C. arabica and C. robusta. Once ripe, coffee berries are picked, processed, and dried. Dried coffee seeds are roasted to varying degrees, depending on the desired flavor. Roasted beans are ground and then brewed with near-boiling water to produce the beverage known as coffee.
Black pepper is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, known as a peppercorn, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. When fresh and fully mature, it is about 5 mm (0.20 in) in diameter and dark red, and contains a single seed, like all drupes. Peppercorns and the ground pepper derived from them may be described simply as pepper, or more precisely as black pepper, green pepper, or white pepper.
Upputhara is in news these days following the frequent earthquakes around the place. The villagers are in fear, as the tremours may cause the delicate Mullaperiyar Dam to burst at any time. If the dam breaks, the 1,000 houses in Upputhara will be the first to washed away. [3]
Mullaiperiyar Dam is a masonry gravity dam on the Periyar River in the Indian state of Kerala It is located 881 m (2,890 ft) above mean sea level, on the Cardamom Hills of the Western Ghats in Thekkady, Idukki District of Kerala, South India. It was constructed between 1887 and 1895 by John Pennycuick and also reached in an agreement to divert water eastwards to the Madras Presidency area. It has a height of 53.6 m (176 ft) from the foundation, and a length of 365.7 m (1,200 ft). The Periyar National Park in Thekkady is located around the dam's reservoir. The dam is located in Kerala on the river Periyar, but is operated and maintained by Tamilnadu state. Although the Periyar River has a total catchment area of 5398 km2 with 114 km2 in Tamil Nadu, the catchment area of the Mullaperiyar Dam itself lies entirely in Kerala. On 21 November 2014, the water level hit 142 feet for first time in 35 years. The reservoir again hit the maximum limit of 142 feet on 15 August 2018, following incessant rains in the state of Kerala.
