Periyakulam Knowledge Guide

Tourism

Periyakulam is also known as ‘Mango City’ and is known for its sweet Mango. Periyakulam is also known for its sweet water which comes from the Berijam Lake kodaikanal. It has nice weather throughout the year. Periyakulam itself has so many tourist places; also around Periyakulam, you can find a number of tourist locations. To name a few, Sothuparai Dam (9 km), Kumbakarai Falls (8 km), Theertha Thotti (2 km), Vaigai Dam (15 km), Manjalar Dam (18 km), Kodaikanal (49 km via kumbakarai, adukkam)(72 km via devathanapatty)Thekkady (80 km), Surulithirtham (60 km), Munnar (103 km) and many more. MaruthaNayagam Masjid located in Vadagarai(legs of Marutha Nayagam was buried in this Masjid) The school at Periyakulam is Victoria Memorial High School which caters to education in the town. The population has been declining since the 1990s. According to World Gazetteer the population as of 2012 is only 39,185 down from 46,744 in 1991 which would mean that Periyakulam has only 8,000 people more than it did 61 years ago(1951). This would make it one of the few cities in India to have a marginal population increase since 1951. Close to periyakulam are the Kumbakkarai waterfalls i.e. 8 km away from Periyakulam. This waterfalls was supposed to be a very dangerous waterfalls with lot of pits. Hence people used to be afraid to go near to the falls. In 1942 an affluent business person Thiru K Chellam Iyer Properitor of Bavani Krishna Vilas Hotel - Periyakulam, dredged the entire falls area, closed the dangerous holes, constructed dressing rooms, in the falls and staircases for safe access to the falls. With his efforts Kumbakkarai waterfalls turned out to be a tourist spot. The Horticultural College & Research Institute (HC & RI), one of the constituency colleges of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, is located at Periyakulam. Government Nursing college, is located at periyakulam.