Bird Watching Kallada Reservoir

About this event

Bird Watching Kallada Reservoir is a watch for birds on the reservoir of the Kallada Irrigation Project at Thenmala, in eastern Kollam. The water is held by the Parappar dam, also called the Thenmala dam, beside Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuary. Open water and a forest edge are why people look here. You look from where the public may stand. You do not treat the dam as a park you can wander.

Cormorants dive for fish. Kites patrol the shore. Winter ducks rest on open reaches when they are in the south. Those are examples of what a large inland lake can hold. They are not an official list, and a watch can be full or almost empty. A still morning with no ducks is still the reservoir. Birds move with water level, disturbance, and season.

November to March covers the cooler season, when migratory waterbirds are spoken of in Kerala. The reservoir level changes with irrigation and with rain. A high lake covers banks that were mud a month earlier. The watch is standing where the public may look at the water. It is not a tour inside the sanctuary. It is not a boat ride. Thenmala boating, when it runs, is a separate ticket. A boat ticket is not a bird ticket, and a bird watch does not put you on a boat.

Dam walls, intake towers, and sanctuary boundaries are working or protected places. Do not climb a fence because a bird flew that way. Do not feed birds, and do not throw food into the water. Food changes what the birds do, and it does not belong in the reservoir. Shendurney has its own entry rules. Seeing the forest from outside is not a sanctuary pass. If you want the sanctuary, that is a separate visit, with its own permission.

Aryankavu railway station is about 15 kilometres from the Kallada dam at Thenmala. Thiruvananthapuram International Airport is about 80 kilometres away. Buses use the Thenmala bus stop. Rooms named in the area are Thenmala Ecoresort, Kandamath Heritage Resort, and Thenmala Heritage. A room with a view of the water is not a permit to walk the dam.

The dam has several names in ordinary speech: Kallada, Parappar, Thenmala. They are the same reservoir. Stand only where people are allowed to stand. A cormorant, a kite, or a winter duck may be there between November and March, or the water may show you almost nothing. Boating, when Thenmala is running boats, is a different ticket and a different queue. Shendurney is a different permission again. Aryankavu station is about 15 kilometres from the dam, and the bus stop is Thenmala. Thenmala Ecoresort, Kandamath Heritage Resort, and Thenmala Heritage put you in the area for the night. They do not put you on the wall. Do not climb an intake because the view is better, and do not throw food to pull a bird closer.

Irrigation and rain move the shoreline. A bank you stood on last month may be underwater, and a mudflat that held birds may be dry. The public view is the visit. Climbing a fence to improve it is not. Shendurney has its own entry. Seeing forest trees across the water is not that entry. If you want a boat, buy the boating ticket when boats are running, and do not call it birdwatching.

Ask where visitors may stand, and keep any sanctuary visit separate. November to March is when people look. It is not a guided departure every day, and there is no hide with a booked seat.

🚆 Railway: Aryankavu Railway Station — approximately 15 km from Kallada dam at Thenmala.

✈️ Airport: Thiruvananthapuram International Airport is approximately 80 km from Kallada dam at Thenmala.

🚌 Bus: Thenmala bus stop.

🏨 Stay: Thenmala Ecoresort, Kandamath Heritage Resort and Thenmala Heritage are nearby stay options.

✅ Notes: Kallada (Parappar) dam area at Thenmala. Dates in this sheet are the listing window (11/1/2026 to 3/31/2027), not a confirmed daily show.