Heavy tourist footfall threatens Kerala's Malampuzha drinking water reservoir

Conservationists have sounded an alarm over escalating environmental degradation at Malampuzha dam, a critical drinking water source in Kerala's Palakkad district, warning that unchecked tourism threatens the reservoir's ecological integrity. The People's Review on Urban Development (PROUD) has cited mounting evidence of visitor impact within the dam's sensitive catchment zone, where protective measures appear inadequate to handle rising footfall.

According to environmental monitors, tourists accessing the protected catchment area are bringing food and alcoholic beverages, subsequently leaving behind plastic packaging, food waste, and shattered glass bottles. Such contamination poses immediate risks to water quality in a reservoir that supplies drinking water to surrounding communities and serves agricultural irrigation needs across the region.

The organisation has highlighted the absence of adequate enforcement mechanisms to restrict visitor access to ecologically sensitive zones within the catchment. Current tourism management practices appear insufficient to balance recreation with environmental protection, PROUD representatives have indicated.

The warning underscores broader challenges faced by India's water infrastructure sites, where the tension between recreational access and resource protection continues to intensify. Authorities in Kerala have not yet responded with revised visitor management protocols or strengthened catchment protection measures at the facility.