Peppara Dam Map (via Google)

The above map indicates submerged areas when there is plenty of water. If you look closely you can see the dam on the lower left of the map. The road actually goes over the dam into the forest, but you need to park your vehicle outside the dam premises.

park your vehicle outside the dam premises.

Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary

Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary consists of the Peppara dam and its surrounding areas. The sanctuary was created after the commissioning of the Peppara dam. The total area of the reserve is about 53 square kilometres (with about 10% of it submerged by Peppara dam). The sanctuary is home to a rich set of flora and fauna. The abundance of butterflies and birds was striking when I went there. There are many tribal settlements (Kani tribe) within the sanctuary.
Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary has a healthy population of elephant, wild dog, gaur, sambar, Lion tailed macaque, wild boar, Malabar squirrel and tiger. A substantial population of snakes including king cobra and python are in the sanctuary. The sanctuary is also well known for the abundance of bird species and butterflies. The forests here are located at elevation varying from 100m to 1500m and the forest types here include – tropical evergreen, semi evergreen and moist mixed deciduous.

Peppara Dam

Peppara dam is located around 55KM from Trivandrum city and is constructed over Karamana river. It was built to meet the water requirements of Trivandrum city till 2025 and is the lifeline of the city.
Aruvikkara dam was constructed across Karamana river to meet the drinking water requirements of Trivandrum city. It is located around 17KM from city centre. However it is a small dam and hold up to 4 days of water required for the city. Hence in 1983, Peppara dam was constructed on the upper reaches of Karamana river to act as a water bank for Aruvikkara dam.
Currently Aruvikkara dam supplies about 220 million litres of water and the city needs over 250 million litres of water. A new water supply scheme under JBIC (Japan Bank for International Cooperation) will increase the supply capacity of Aruvikkara dam by another 75 million litres per day. There are also other small projects to increase the total supply capacity of Aruvikkara dam to around 400 million litres per day. In order to have reserve water for 200 days, the Peppara dam would need to store 80 million cubic meters of water.
The current maximum water capacity of Peppara dam is around 40 million cubic meters and it can be increased to 70 million cubic meters if the reservoir level is increased to 110 meters from the current maximum of 104 meters. This is possible as the dam was designed with this height in mind. However it would submerge about 265 hectares of forest land. The Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary was notified assuming the submerging of this extra land. However now environmentalists are fighting against increasing of the dam level. If the reasonable demand of increasing the dam level is not met, Trivandrum city is heading for a severe water crisis in the coming years.
Interestingly KSEB (Kerala State Electricity Board) operates a 3MW mini hydroelectric power station located here.