The Cherupuzha (Chaliyar river tributary) near REC NIT - Calicut:CALICUTCITY

Few  kilometers behind the REC NIT Calicut is a river. This must be one of the many rivers that flow into the Arabian sea from the western ghats. (I did a full fledged course on Environmental Law at NLSIU  by which my very awareness about the environment stands increased and compounded.). I understand now that the water supply of many cities in the world is undertaken from the rivers that flow by and there will be no rivers in the absence of mountain ranges. How ever technically brilliant one might become mankind is always subservient to nature for his fundamental needs. The Romans appear to me were one of the first in this class to build aqua ducts that brought water from rivers into cities and it continues to this day.

The river that flows nerar REC NIT _Calicut is the source of water for the campus. I have written elsewhere that water is pumped from this river to a water treatment plant near the D hostel gate from where it is pumped into over head tanks. I  think the name of this river is Chaliyar and a bridge over this river can be seen  at Chathamangalam .

Many students who play Holi visit the banks of this river for cleaning up their colored countenance. They move in large numbers during the afternoon of this day and take the approach road adjacent to the E - hostel. Even I was drawn into the Holi melee though inadvertently and dumped into large cans of colored water. My room mate Binod Anand Mishra did this to me once and I have not forgotten his grin seeing me half immersed in color.

I fondly remember this river for other reasons. Many times few of us would take a stroll to this river and sit on its banks for tew hours..the errie silence with the noise of the river rustling beside and the thick vegetation around and the sands reflecting the evening sun light made a perfect setting . We used to take the approach road adjacent to co-operative society and largely a winding and hilly terrain and it must be around three kilometers from our campus and stopping for tea at some road side stall.

I dont know what this place looks like now. Things must have changed and transformed by the pressures of time. Somewhere I read that a bridge has come up over this river linking Koduvally with Kettangal. Incidentally Kettangal is the hamlet or a cross-road adjacent to our campus and must have made travelling time lesser between these points and also changing the environmental equations of this place.