Thovalai

Thovalai is a small village located in Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu, is famous for flowers. The flower market situated at this village is exporting all varieties of flowers to many places.

The peculiar variety of Jasmine flower called locally as 'Pichchi Vellai' or 'Pichchip poo' is a rarity with unique smell. It is some what similar to 'Jaathi Malligai' grown else where, but is white in color as well.

The Subramania Temple, which is situated atop a small hillock is worth a place to visit. The western and eastern ghats extend through the village. The view of the "WIND FARMS" located in muppanthal from the murugan temple is quite a nice one to see.

Farmers from surrounding villages, like Chenbagaraman puthoor, Kannan puthoor, Aralvaimozhi, viswanatha puram, have switched over to cultivate flowers from paddy as they face inconsistent seasonal rains.

The village people are quite active throughout the day with the flower business. Especially, the ladies at home are employed in this work and earn substantial amount of money. This increases the economy of the whole family and also the confidence level of the women to survive in the society.

Government is planning to set up a floriculture research station at Thovalai for the benefit of farmers raising flower crops in and around Kanyakumari district.Flower producers were being put to untold hardship as they could not preserve their produce at Thovalai.So the officials decided to set up a floriculture research station with cold storage facility to help the farmers to sell their produce for a better price.This facility will uplift the socio-economic status of farmers in these pockets, particularly Thovalai, who were exporting flowers to other countries through Thiruvananthapuram.Thovalai is famous for its jasmine, `pichi' and `Sevvanthi' flowers. Jasmine farmers have been demanding the government to establish a perfume unit in the area.

There is also an engineering college in thovalai, named CSI Institute of Technology, affiliated to Anna University.

A small river (Channel) is running via thovalai, which originates from "Pechipaarai Dam". The water is used for agricultural purpose and also for domestic use.

There is also a railway station where the passenger trains stop. Frequent road transportations are also there, as the village located in the highway running between "Nagercoil" and "Tirunelveli".

Suran thiruviza is the most celebrated public function of the Thovalai and the surrounding villages.Lot of crackers are burst at that time.Especially the one those that are rocketed into the sky and bursting into different colors are too good to watch and enjoy.Lots of peoples from nearby villages will come to watch that celebrations. Lord Murugan temple situated in Chackirigiri hill is a popular worship place.

Villisai Vendan V.K. Sundaram Pillai, Nathaswara Vidhwan Kumaresa Kambar, flower artist Presidential award winner Madasamy and Volley ball player P. Krishnar Pillai were all Mannin Mainders of Thovalai.

Notes

External links

For an article in the popular newspaper 'The Hindu' on this village see http://www.hindu.com/2006/08/05/stories/2006080508700300.htm