Friday, November 13, 2009

Sathanur Dam

Sathanur dam is a wonderful place situated about 30km from Thiruvannamalai. The dam is constructed on the river Pennaiyar or Ponnaiyar that flows from the Nandi Hills in Karnataka. The dam seems like one of the important source of water to irrigate thousands of acres of vast dry lands and it has a small hydro power plant to generate electric current.
Sathanur garden
I visited this dam on my trip to thiruvannamalai last month and it seems dry almost with less water in dam. There’s a beautiful garden stretched along the dam with various things to entertain like boating, mini zoo, aquarium, crocodile farm and small flower garden with fountains. It turned dark when we reached the dam and finding the route to the dam was a difficult task for us and there’re many speed brakes on this way gives a bumpy drive and until leaving the town, the road carries much damage.
Sathanur dam
At entry we pay a little amount as fee and drive on the other side of the dam until its end and back to garden. At the end of the dam we suddenly hear a very strange noise that could make one frighten. As it was like a forest area we can’t guess what animal sounds like that, but when we come down to garden we came to know it was the dogs that created that waves altogether.
Sathanur garden
The mini zoo was something invisible except one poor peacock inside a cage and two other empty cages. The lights were on and darkness around, there was many small insects on immense began to drive us from checking other sites, but one good thing was somehow I manage to click some pictures of the garden before it turned complete dark. This is second time I’m facing such insects next to Vaigai dam in Theni and they just blow on our face and try to enter our eyes, nose and mouth to much irritate.
pink flower
There were some tall trees along the road rustle to wind and few look real statues of animals and people, and notable one was the statue of mahatma on the hill above the dam. It would be a great sight to see the water flowing from the dam if there was almost water.
me and dad
The dam was constructed in 1964 and it has a capacity of 7,321 million cubic feet at 119 feet high. In late 60’s to 80’s the dam was an important shooting spot in film industries and many songs have been captured here with top heroes at lead. This is a best picnic place in thiruvannamalai and on festival days this place attracts more visitors. One can really spent a good time here and best time to visit is after monsoon when there is much water to keep fountains work.

15 comments:

Kavi said...

I didnt know about this place...thanks for sharing..

Rakesh Vanamali said...

What a wonderful place! I get a treat every other time you publish a post!

Thank you so much!

cyclopseven said...

Thank you for sharing. You are really keeping up with life. That's a wonderful way to live Jeevan. I enjoy visiting your blog. Great job by a great personality. God Bless.

Priya said...

Thanks for sharing Jeevan. Had no clue at all.

venuss66 said...

Another great post from you. Thank you.

Devika Jyothi said...

Nice post, Jeevan...nice to see you there :)

wishes,
devika

Anya said...

Thanks Jeevan
its a very interesting post :-)
It looks very peaceful there.
Unique shots !!!
Have a wonderful weekend
hugs from us
Kareltje =^.^=
Anya :)

Agnes said...

Sounds wonderful! Thanks for posting this :-)

Miladysa said...

Another very interesting tour :)

I feel sorry for the poor lonely peacock :(

Anonymous said...

Oh some very beautifully captured shots...that dam looks gigantic set in sprawling scenery...just lovely!

Jeevan said...

Thanks everyone for your support! I'm glad to let u all know this place, take care :)

Urmi said...

Nice to see the picture of Sathanur Dam as I have been there 4 times and liked the place very much. Very nice described with wonderful pictures. I liked your picture with Uncle, the best one.

Anonymous said...

very crystal clear images

sicilyramesh said...

dear how are you? nice place . iwant see the dam but now iam saudi arbia

work iam also indian chennai dear i need more beautifully, you need any help iwill make , my friend also there in veeranam but no nommber ithink veeranam nadu kalani street

this steet phone no(std booth) ineed you have give me friend

John Francis said...

I love this damn. We used to go as a family to this dam when I was young. I remember all the locations that my mother stood and took photos. We used to have family picnic. We are from Vellore.

I visited this damn again in 2009 after 40 years. The government of Tamilnadu can develop this place to be a beautiful recreation place and visitors paradise for families to spend time. Nowadays nobody goes here and nobody even knows this place.

There were several tamil movie songs shot in this dam. I am just watching Sumaithangi an old tamil movie where one song was shot here. There might be many songs, but as I was watching it reminded me and I googled and I saw this blog. I wanted to post. Tamilnadu government should rebuild such kind of nice places for tourist attractions for families so that people can visit and they can even have boarding and lodging facilities. Even Tamil movie industry and other industry should start shooting outdoor songs in this place. I remember once I was going on a South India tour and I was in Alampuzha dam in Kerala, and I saw Latha (MGR) where they were shooting a song in that dam.

First time I saw Latha madam there. So, Indian government should encourage to keep these heritages and preserve it and make it attractive. Now since there is lots of water in Tamilnadu rivers and dams are full they should really promote tourism and invest some money in this damn and beautifying it more as there will be people who would love to go on a weekend picnic and spend time here. Also, the road from Thiruvannamalai to this place is horrible, government should do something about it to build nice roads and restaurants and invite people and they can collect reasonable amount of money as entrance fee which they already do.

Come on Tamilnadu politicians do somethings good for the state and the country man. You guys sit and eat the money and store it for your future children and families. Do good for the country and the state. God help our Tamilnadu politics. No one thinks about the state and the people. Even now I heard they are planning to build a second International Airport. You know what Tamilnadu should think, why not we build the best airport in the world or the biggest airport in the world. Build it far better than anybody else has built it. That is the kind of vision people should have.

God bless everyone and the people