{"id":108160,"date":"2026-06-14T13:40:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T08:10:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=108160"},"modified":"2026-06-14T16:49:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T11:19:41","slug":"thamirabarani-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/thamirabarani-river\/","title":{"rendered":"Thamirabarani River"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Thamirabarani River Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Researchers have expressed concern over the declining otter population in Tamil Nadu&#8217;s Thamirabarani River due to the increasing destruction of their natural habitat in recent years.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Thamirabarani River<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Thamirabarani River \u2013 also known as the <\/span><b>Tamraparni River<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or <\/span><b>Porunai River<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u00a0 a rare <\/span><b>perennial river<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in southern India <\/span><b>flowing entirely<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> through the <\/span><b>Tamil Nadu<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> state.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The river\u2019s name is derived from \u201c<\/span><b>Thamiram\u201d (copper) <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><b>\u201cBarani\u201d (vessel)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in Tamil, referring to the <\/span><b>copper-like hue of its water<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>s<\/strong>\u2014believed to result from<\/span><b> dissolved minerals.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Porunai <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is its<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">classical name in<\/span><b> Sangam literature<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, where it has <\/span><b>extensive literary references.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Course<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It <\/span><b>originates <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">from the <\/span><b>Agastyarkoodam peak<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the <\/span><b>Pothigai hills <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of the <\/span><b><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/western-ghats\/\" target=\"_blank\">Western Ghats<\/a>.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It flows<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">through the Tirunelveli and Tuticorin Districts of the Tamil Nadu state <\/span><b>into the Gulf of Mannar <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of the<\/span><b> Bay of Bengal.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Total Length<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Approx. <\/span><b>128 km<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Major Tributaries<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <\/span><b>Gadananathi <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">River, the <\/span><b>Manimuthar <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">River, and the <\/span><b>Pachaiyar <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">River.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Prominent dams<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> include:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Papanasam Dam<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Karaiyar Dam<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Manimuthar Dam<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Servalar Dam<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gadananathi Dam<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Major Waterfalls:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Banatheertham Falls (132 ft, near Kariyar reservoir)<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Agasthiyar Falls<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kalyana Theertham<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Biodiversity:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>one of the richest rivers<\/b> <b>in the world with fish <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and is dominated by more than 16 species of native snakehead fish.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is estimated that nearly <\/span><b>669 fish species<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are found in the river.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>All the three species of otters in India<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the <\/span><b>Eurasian otter<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the <\/span><b>smooth-coated otter,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the <\/span><b>Asian small-clawed otter, inhabit<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the Thamirabarani River.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>News<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <\/span><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.etvbharat.com\/en\/offbeat\/otter-habitat-along-thamirabarani-river-in-tamil-nadu-needs-to-be-saved-enn26061302574\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ETVB<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thamirabarani River is a rare perennial river in southern India flowing entirely through the Tamil Nadu state.  Read more about Thamirabarani River, Course, Length, Tributaries, News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":108189,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,8127,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-108160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-prelims-pointers","9":"tag-thamirabarani-river","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108160"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108188,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108160\/revisions\/108188"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}