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Pothundi Dam

A 19th-century irrigation dam near Nemmara — one of the oldest in India, its core wall built with a jaggery-and-lime mix — with a scenic reservoir, gardens and boating.

Town guide: Palakkad townPalakkad districtGet directions →Stay 13Eat 6Do 7
Pothundi Dam, Palakkad town
Practical guide

Plan Pothundi Dam

Who's going?Tailor Pothundi Dam to your trip
Typedam
AreaPalakkad town
DistrictPalakkad
Best timePost-monsoon and winter for scenery
Time needed1 to 2 hours
Entry₹20
Places to visit6Listed businesses26
The story

Pothundi makes the water-supply landscape below Nelliyampathy visible before the hill road begins.

The story of Pothundi Dam

The earthen dam lies on the Nelliyampathy route near Nenmara. Kerala Tourism describes its irrigation and drinking-water functions and the landscaped garden at the entrance. These everyday uses help explain why the reservoir matters beyond the mountain view behind it.

Read the full history of Pothundi Dam 44 more words

Why visit

Allow time for the garden and reservoir outlook rather than treating the dam as a hurried photograph stop. If continuing uphill, leave sufficient daylight and travel time for the remaining road. A dam visit and a Nelliyampathy excursion are separate parts of the day.

What to expect

Highlights

  • Reservoir and dam views at Pothundi Dam
  • Engineering landmark or garden/viewpoint stop
  • Pair with nearby hill, forest or town routes
Getting there

How to visit

  • Base yourself in Palakkad town or a nearby town in Palakkad, then confirm the last-mile route locally before leaving.
  • Check public access status before travel; dam areas often have security rules and seasonal entry limits.
  • If the visit depends on forest, temple, boat, ferry, weather or seasonal access, check the official/local rule on the day before travel.

Distance by road

  • Coimbatore54 km
  • Kozhikode127 km
  • Kochi143 km
  • Madurai224 km
  • Mysuru251 km

Road km to Palakkad; ghat roads and traffic vary — allow extra.

Timing

Best time

Post-monsoon and winter for scenery; monsoon access may change.

Weather in Pothundi DamSeasonal guide

Live forecast loads in your browser.

Today at Pothundi Dam
Sunrise6:12 am
Sunset6:08 pm
Golden hour best light5:08 pm–6:08 pm
Blue hour after sunset6:08 pm–6:33 pm
Sun sets toward compass bearingW · 263°
Moon tonight🌑 New moon · 0%
Retreating monsoon. October and November still see spells of rain from the retreating monsoon, though it is usually lighter than mid-year. Conditions are generally good but worth checking.

Sun and moon are calculated for this location and shown in IST. Photography windows are the hour around sunrise and sunset; the sunset bearing is degrees clockwise from true north. Moon phase is accurate to about half a day.

Visitor notes

  • Photography may be restricted in some dam/security zones.
  • Carry ID if required.
Safety

Good to know

  • Do not cross barriers or restricted zones.
  • Follow release-warning and security instructions.
Official eco & forest programmes

Experiences around Pothundi Dam

These are official or public-sector eco offerings that match this place, town or forest destination. Confirm availability, permits, tariffs and reporting times with the official operator before travel.

Dhoni Waterfalls, Pothundi Dam
trekwaterfall

Dhoni Waterfalls guided trek

Popular guided waterfall trek near Palakkad, listed by Kerala Tourism’s ecotourism programme pages.

Kerala Forest Department
Official source →
Stay · eat · do · rent · see · shop

Stays, food & things to do near Pothundi Dam

Browse listed stays, food, activities, sights, shops and rentals around Pothundi Dam. Check each listing’s locality and contact the business directly for current arrangements.

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13 places to stay near Pothundi Dam

Hotel Fort Palace — Hotel in Palakkad townPhoto: Hotel Fort Palace
Hotel · Palakkad town
Hotel Fort Palace
24.5 km · straight-line distance

A 4-star hotel opposite Tipu Sultan's Fort in the heart of Palakkad town. It offers rooms up to royal suites and a garden restaurant serving Kerala cuisine.

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Hotel Indraprastha — Hotel in Palakkad townPhoto: Hotel Indraprastha
Hotel · Palakkad town
Hotel Indraprastha
24.9 km · straight-line distance

One of Palakkad's oldest hotels, opened in 1985 in the city centre. A renovated business-class hotel with a multi-cuisine restaurant and 24-hour coffee shop.

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Kairali - The Ayurvedic Healing Village — Hotel in Palakkad townPhoto: Kairali - The Ayurvedic Healing Village
Hotel · Palakkad town
Kairali - The Ayurvedic Healing Village
22.2 km · straight-line distance

An Ayurveda and yoga retreat on wooded acres at Kodumbu, Palakkad, opened in 1999. It has thirty Vaastu-designed villas and doctor-guided Panchakarma care.

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Infinity Swimming PoolPhoto: Hotel Soorya City
Hotel · Palakkad town
Hotel Soorya City
25.6 km · straight-line distance

A value hotel in the Sultanpet area of Palakkad town, near the railway station. Its rooftop restaurant Soorya Mandal serves veg and non-veg Indian fare.

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Distrikt-9 Hotels and Resorts — Hotel in Palakkad townPhoto: Distrikt-9 Hotels and Resorts
Hotel · Palakkad town
Distrikt-9 Hotels and Resorts
30.3 km · straight-line distance

Billed as Palakkad's first five-star hotel, at Kanjikode on the Salem-Cochin highway. It pairs refined rooms with multiple dining venues and event spaces.

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Pannadikadu Homestay’s tiled-roof building stands beneath leafy trees, with warm lights illuminating a stone-faced entrance wall.Photo: Kerala Tourism / Pannadikadu Homestay
Homestay (Kerala Tourism Gold House) · Palakkad town
Pannadikadu Homestay Palakkad
21.3 km · straight-line distance

Kerala Tourism Gold House-classified homestay in a rustic brick-and-tile farmhouse amid mango orchards at Muthalamada in the Chittur belt of Palakkad district. The hosts offer characterful farmhouse rooms with home-cooked farm meals and orchard walks, a quiet rural retreat rather than a hotel.

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Planters Retreat’s white house has red tiled roofs, a deep veranda and illuminated windows facing a lawn.Photo: Kerala Tourism / Planters Retreat
Homestay (Kerala Tourism Diamond House) · Palakkad town
Planters Retreat Palakkad
51.9 km · straight-line distance

Kerala Tourism Diamond House-classified plantation homestay in a colonial-style bungalow set amid cocoa, rubber and spice gardens near Kanhirapuzha in northern Palakkad district. The hosts offer characterful verandah rooms with home-cooked meals and plantation walks, a tranquil estate stay well away from the town.

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Sahya Nalukettu Homestay Palakkad — Homestay (Kerala Tourism Silver House) in Palakkad townPhoto: Kerala Tourism / Sahya Nalukettu Homestay
Homestay (Kerala Tourism Silver House) · Palakkad town
Sahya Nalukettu Homestay Palakkad
31.2 km · straight-line distance

Kerala Tourism Silver House-classified homestay in a restored traditional nalukettu house at Thenur, Parali, on the Kongad road in rural Palakkad district. The resident hosts offer heritage-style rooms around a central courtyard with home-cooked Palakkad meals and a garden setting, a genuine village homestay rather than a hotel.

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Soorya Residency Palakkad — Budget hotel in Palakkad townPhoto: Kerala Tourism / Soorya Residency
Budget hotel · Palakkad town
Soorya Residency Palakkad
25.3 km · straight-line distance

Kerala Tourism-listed budget hotel in the heart of Palakkad town at Sultanpet, a short walk from the main KSRTC bus station and Palakkad railway terminal. It offers eighteen value-priced A/C and non-A/C rooms with round-the-clock room service and an in-house restaurant, an economical town-centre base for transit and business travellers.

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Hotel Elegance Palakkad — 3-Star hotel in Palakkad townPhoto: Kerala Tourism / Hotel Elegance Palakkad
3-Star hotel · Palakkad town
Hotel Elegance Palakkad

Kerala Tourism-classified three-star hotel by the Elegance Group on the By-pass Road at Vallanghy, Nemmara, in the Nelliyampathy foothills of Palakkad district. It offers eleven comfortable rooms with a multi-cuisine restaurant, a 200-seat Darbar conference hall and a bar, all set among paddy fields with views of the Nelliyampathy Hills.

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Hotel Indraprastha Palakkad — Hotel in Palakkad townPhoto: Hotel Indraprastha Palakkad
Hotel · Palakkad town
Hotel Indraprastha Palakkad
24.9 km · straight-line distance

Kerala Tourism-listed Palakkad town hotel on English Church Road. Mid-range 3-star business hotel · Palakkad town, Hotel, English Church Road.

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Kandath Tharavad heritage house exteriorPhoto: Kandath Tharavad
Hotel · Palakkad town
Kandath Tharavad
18.8 km · straight-line distance

A 300-year-old family tharavad amid paddy fields at Thenkurussi, rural Palakkad. The mud-and-teak heritage home hosts guests for village-life stays.

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Hotel · Palakkad town
KPM Regency Palakkad
25.3 km · straight-line distance

Kerala Tourism-listed Palakkad town hotel on Press Club Road. Mid-range 3-star business hotel · Palakkad hotel, Press Club Road, Kerala Tourism listed.

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Book with the place itself. India’s cyber-crime coordination centre warned in April 2025 that convincing copies of hotel and pilgrimage booking sites are being pushed through sponsored search and social ads, taking payment for rooms the property never hears about. Use the contact and source details on each profile to confirm the exact business and booking channel. A directory entry or map pin alone does not establish an operator’s identity or current availability. Roampedia takes no commission and does not collect booking payments. If a booking page reached you through an ad, check the address bar against the property’s own site before you pay. Fraud can be reported on cybercrime.gov.in or on 1930.

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Kerala’s first heritage village, ~3 km from Palakkad town, built around the Sri Viswanatha Swamy temple on the Kalpathy river — a Tamil-Brahmin agraharam known as the “Kashi of the South” and for its November Ratholsavam chariot festival.

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jainJainimedu Jain Temple

A ~15th-century Jain temple on the western edge of Palakkad town, one of the few surviving traces of Jainism in Kerala, with images of the Thirthankaras and Yakshinis.

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damKanjirapuzha Dam

A calm reservoir and garden set among hills in the Mannarkkad side of Palakkad, a quieter alternative to Malampuzha.

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damMangalam Dam

12.0 km · straight line

A quiet reservoir among wooded hills near Alathur, south-west of Palakkad town — good for a peaceful drive and picnic.

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heritageKollengode

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wildlifeChoolannur Peafowl Sanctuary

A peafowl sanctuary at Mayiladumpara (“the rock where peacocks dance”) near Alathur, home to 200-plus free-roaming peacocks and over 100 bird species; best at dawn and dusk.

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templeThiruvegappura Temple

The Thiruvegappura Sankaranarayana Temple near Ottapalam, admired for its Kerala architecture, a fine 15th–16th-century Koothambalam (temple theatre) and three sreekovils with separate flag masts.

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trekSiruvani trek

A Forest Department safari and walk into the closed Siruvani reserve, starting at the Inchikunnu check post: about 10 km of escorted rainforest road to the dam that supplies Coimbatore’s drinking water, then an hour on foot up to the Keralamedu grasslands on the Kerala–Tamil Nadu border.

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damMalampuzha Dam & Garden

Reservoir and garden area near Palakkad town.

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trekDhoni Waterfalls trek

A Forest Department controlled walk from Dhoni’s forest-office base to a cascade in the Palakkad foothills, with offline admission and a Monday closure.

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Before you go

Pothundi Dam — at a glance

Timings10:00–17:00 daily.
Best timeOctober to February.
Entry price
Indian adult
₹20

Fees change without notice. Check the current rate at the counter.

Entry: Small ticket (around ₹20 adult, ₹10 child); confirm on site.

Getting here

How to reach Pothundi Dam

Near Nemmara, about 30 km south-east of Palakkad town on the road toward Nelliyampathy.

Getting back

If you are travelling by bus or ferry, check the return service with the operator before setting out. Leave time to reach the stop or jetty after your visit.

Ask at the bus stand for the time of the last service back, not the next one. If you miss it, an auto or app cab is the fallback — agree the fare before you get in.

Getting around Pothundi Dam

If you need step-free access, contact the site before travelling. Ask about a level entrance, steps along the route, the nearest drop-off point, seating and accessible toilets.

Nearby

What’s near Pothundi Dam

viewpointKesavan Para

A great sheet of bare granite tilted out over the valley at the end of a red-earth path through wet evergreen forest — the one walk on the Nelliyampathy plateau that anyone reasonably fit can do without the Forest Division's permission.

4.0 km · straight line
DirectionsOpen guide
viewpointKaradipara

A rock shoulder on the Kaikatty-Nooradi road looking across an unbroken fold of evergreen forest to a conical peak — the nearest thing on the plateau to a viewpoint you can have to yourself.

4.3 km · straight line
DirectionsOpen guide
hill stationNelliyampathy

Tea and orange-garden hill station reached through forested ghat roads.

5.5 km · straight line
DirectionsOpen guide
activityGovernment Orange and Vegetable Farm

A state farm at Kaikatty growing mandarin oranges, winter vegetables and a fruit forest of fifty varieties on the Nelliyampathy plateau — the Kingdom of Cochin's Poliya estate, a farm since 1943 and an orange and vegetable farm since 1956, with a passion-fruit processing unit and a published ticket.

6.3 km · straight line
DirectionsOpen guide
trekNelliyampathy trek

Walking routes off the Nelliyampathy plantation plateau: an evergreen-forest footpath to the bare granite of Kesavan Para, longer forest-division routes to Hill Top, Karassuri and over the ridge to Parambikulam, and a four-wheel-drive climb to Manpara and the ruined Victoria Church.

6.4 km · straight line
DirectionsOpen guide
viewpointSeetharkundu viewpoint

The edge of the Nelliyampathy escarpment, where the plateau stops and the Palakkad plain opens out a thousand metres below — a place you drive to and stand at, with a seasonal waterfall below the lip and a car park full of bold macaques.

8.8 km · straight line
DirectionsOpen guide
viewpointRanimedu

A working plantation on the southern shoulder of the Nelliyampathy plateau with a grass-and-rock top point above it, named by Kerala Tourism as a trekking destination and reached by estate track rather than by road.

8.9 km · straight line
DirectionsOpen guide
heritageKollengode

A rural village ~19 km south of Palakkad below the Nelliampathy hills, known for its palace, the Vishnu temple, paddy landscapes and old Tamil-Brahmin heritage.

10.3 km · straight line
DirectionsOpen guide
damMangalam Dam

A quiet reservoir among wooded hills near Alathur, south-west of Palakkad town — good for a peaceful drive and picnic.

12.0 km · straight line
DirectionsOpen guide
trekParambikulam trek

Four separate Forest Department trails from the Anappady information centre and other named starts: the 4 km Bear Path and Elephant Song walks, the 6 km Kariyanshola route with bamboo rafting, and the longer 10 km Pugmark trail from Peruvaripallam.

18.7 km · straight line
DirectionsOpen guide
wildlifeParambikulam Tiger Reserve

Major protected area accessed via the Anamalai side; permits and entry rules apply.

19.4 km · straight line
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heritagePalakkad Fort

Well-preserved fort in Palakkad town, associated with Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan.

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6 detailed place guides in Palakkad town →

On the map

Where Pothundi Dam is

Good to know

Pothundi Dam — frequently asked

Is Pothundi already at the Nelliyampathy hill station?

No. It is near the foothills on the approach route. Allow additional travel time if the hills are your onward destination.

When is the best time to visit Pothundi Dam?

Post-monsoon and winter for scenery; monsoon access may change.

What are the entry fee and timings at Pothundi Dam?

Entry: Small ticket (around ₹20 adult, ₹10 child); confirm on site. Timings: 10:00–17:00 daily. The rupee figure quoted is the Indian adult rate.

How do I reach Pothundi Dam?

Base yourself in Palakkad town or a nearby town in Palakkad, then confirm the last-mile route locally before leaving. Check public access status before travel; dam areas often have security rules and seasonal entry limits. If the visit depends on forest, temple, boat, ferry, weather or seasonal access, check the official/local rule on the day before travel.

How much time do I need for Pothundi Dam?

1 to 2 hours.

What else is near Pothundi Dam?

Nearby you can pair Kesavan Para (4.0 km, approximate straight-line separation), Karadipara (4.3 km, approximate straight-line separation), Nelliyampathy (5.5 km, approximate straight-line separation), Government Orange and Vegetable Farm (6.3 km, approximate straight-line separation).

What should I know before visiting Pothundi Dam?

Do not cross barriers or restricted zones. Follow release-warning and security instructions.

Read before you go

Pothundi Dam guides, stories & itineraries

We have not published a story about Pothundi Dam itself yet. These cover Palakkad town and the wider district, with separate journeys between stops.

Around Palakkad town

These guides explore Palakkad town and the surrounding area. Choose a visit that fits your interests, allowing separately for travel between stops.

Sunlight filters through tall trees above the leaf-covered Dhoni trekking route.
Read before you go
Dhoni’s new millipede: a forest-floor discovery
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Water falls over a rock ledge and flows across lower slabs beneath overhanging trees at Dhoni.
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Dhoni Waterfall: reading rock ledges and changing flow
3 min read · Read →
Cloud rests on a forested Dhoni hillside above a green clearing and scattered trees.
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Dhoni trek: the forest office and a realistic day plan
3 min read · Read →

Kerala-wide guides & itineraries

Route-level itineraries and practical guides for the rest of Kerala.

Green paddy fields in Palakkad, Kerala
Palakkad · district guide
Palakkad travel guide: the gateway and rice bowl of Kerala
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Decorated temple chariots at the Kalpathy Ratholsavam, Palakkad
Palakkad · heritage
Kalpathy: Kerala’s first heritage village and its chariot festival
5 min read · Read →
The Palakkad Gap through the Western Ghats
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The Palakkad Gap: the break in the mountains that shaped Kerala
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See all 34 Palakkad guides & stories →

Image credits

Photographs: LIC Habeeb (CC BY-SA 3.0), Shijan Kaakkara (CC BY-SA 4.0), Veera.sj (CC0), Abhishek Jacob (CC BY-SA 3.0). Wikimedia Commons.