Kumarakom Travel Guide: Vembanad Lake, Birds and Village Backwaters

Kumarakom is a village rather than a town: the district administration puts its area at about 5,166 hectares, of which 2,413 are lake and 1,500 paddy field, and it belongs to Kuttanad, the low-lying rice country around Vembanad.

Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary

The sanctuary on the lake shore is one of Kumarakom's most famous attractions, Kerala Tourism says. A walkway of about 1.5 km leads through the trees to an observation tower, and Kerala Tourism suggests walking it early in the morning; a boat along the edge of the lake and the Kavanar river is the other way to see it. Egrets, herons, kingfishers, darters and cormorants live here all year. Kerala Tourism and the Kottayam district administration both name June to August for watching the resident birds and November to February for the migrants. Check the current timings before you go.

Vembanad Lake

Vembanad, the largest lake in Kerala, is part of the Vembanad–Kol wetland, declared a Ramsar site of international importance in 2002. Four rivers, the Meenachil, Manimala, Pampa and Achankovil, flow into it. From a boat you see the working lake: kettuvallams, the old cargo boats now fitted out as houseboats, fishing canoes, and villagers standing knee-deep to gather black clams, whose shells Kerala Tourism says go to make cement and fertiliser.

Pathiramanal island

Pathiramanal, the 'sands of night', is a wooded island of about 10 acres in the lake, roughly 5 km from Kumarakom and reachable only by boat. With little disturbance it has become a roost for water birds, especially cormorants, and Kerala Tourism counts about 90 bird species there. It belongs to Alappuzha district and lies about 1.5 km from the Muhamma jetty on that shore, so it makes a natural halt on a cruise between the two sides of the lake.

Village canals, paddy fields and Kuttanad

Behind the lake front, Kumarakom is a farming village of canals, coconut groves and paddy fields that lie below sea level, part of Kuttanad, which Kerala Tourism calls the rice bowl of Kerala. It was one of the four pilot destinations of Kerala's responsible tourism programme, launched here in 2008 with the village panchayat, and its village programmes show visitors coir making, net fishing and coconut-frond weaving. The project won a National Tourism Award for 2008–09.

Thazhathangadi, Kottayam

Kottayam, 14 km east of Kumarakom, has an old riverside quarter at Thazhathangadi on the Meenachil river. Its Juma Masjid, which the district administration describes as about a thousand years old, is built in the traditional Kerala style and known for its wood carving. Kottayam is also the nearest railway town, so the quarter fits easily into an arrival or departure day.

Ettumanoor and Vaikom temples

Kottayam district has two old Shiva temples with famous festivals. At Ettumanoor, the Mahadeva temple keeps the Ezhara Ponnana, seven and a half elephant figures carved from jackfruit wood and plated with about 13 kg of gold, shown to devotees at midnight on the eighth day of its ten-day festival. The Mahadeva temple at Vaikom, on the shore of Vembanad Lake, is known for its Vaikathashtami festival and, Kerala Tourism says, is the only temple in Kerala with an oval sanctum.

Aruvikkuzhi waterfall

For a change from flat water, Aruvikkuzhi, about 18 km from Kottayam town, drops some 100 feet in five steps through rubber plantations. The district administration calls it a picnic spot and an ideal place for trekking, St Mary's Church stands at the top of the falls, and Pallickathodu, a rubber-growing centre, is 1 km away.

The lake is the reason to come, and it can be seen by day or overnight. Our Kumarakom backwater day cruise is a half-day or full-day outing on a smaller boat, with no cabin and no night aboard; it usually stops at or near the bird sanctuary, from the boat or on foot depending on the water level and season. For a night on the water, the Alleppey houseboat cruise runs on the same lake, and houseboats in Kumarakom lists what we run here.

In August and September, Onam brings the snake boat races, and Kumarakom holds its own race on the Kavanar and Kottathodu rivers, with veppu, odi and churulan boats as well as a few snake boats, the district administration says. Most of Kumarakom's resorts have Ayurveda centres, and Kerala Tourism names the monsoon as the season for rejuvenation treatments; see our Ayurveda experiences in Kerala.

December to March is the dry season. At Kottayam, the nearest IMD observatory, normal rainfall is under 55 mm in each of those months, against about 609 mm in June, the wettest month. October is wetter than September there, at about 330 mm against 271 mm, as the northeast monsoon takes over, and November still averages about 190 mm. The pre-monsoon months bring the highest normal maximum, about 34°C, and the rain returns: May alone averages about 248 mm.

The wet months have their own draws: the resident birds of June to August, the boat races of August and September, and the monsoon season for Ayurveda. Our day cruise runs all year, though the monsoon brings higher water and a greater chance of disruption.