Chellanam

Chellanam
village
Chellanam Location in Kerala, India
Coordinates: 9°48′26″N 76°16′39″E / 9.8072100°N 76.277420°E / 9.8072100; 76.277420Coordinates: 9°48′26″N 76°16′39″E / 9.8072100°N 76.277420°E / 9.8072100; 76.277420
Country	India
State	Kerala
District	Ernakulam
Population (2011)
• Total	14,928
Languages
• Official	Malayalam, English
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)
Vehicle registration	KL-
2011 census code	627997

Chellanam is a village in the Kochi sub-district of Ernakulam District in the South Indian state of Kerala.^[1] Chellanam means "Place where no one goes" (In Malayalam - Chella Vanam).

History

Chellanam formed the southern border of the pre-colonial Kingdom of Cochin. At one time, there was a police station called "chouki" at the southwest end of the forest, where policemen guarded shipments transported through the canal and collected the tariffs on goods brought into the country.

On May 24, 2010 residents of Maruvakad, staying near Thiruhridaya Chapel, just 100 meters from Velankanni Matha Pilgrim Center; dug an old well which is to be believed that, it was built and used by Dutch Army around 200 years ago.

This will help and will be a new resource for drinking water. Water is the most precious element for the people of Chellanam. The story of chellanam goes like this: The Maharaja of kochi had a marine fleet which had a captain named Mr. Thobias Cappithan. When he won a battle he was presented with a piece of land called "chellavanam". It was a vanam (forest) then which normally nobody goes to but he and his family settled there. He had three sons; one stayed near a cross statue later his descendants came to be known as Kurisingal family, another stayed at Valiyaparambu and became Valyaparambu family, and the third son who stayed near "Kalam" became Kalathumkal family. Chellavanam now is called Chellanam.

Location

Places around Chellanam Fort Kochi, Mundamveli Palluruthy, Perumpadappu Arabian Sea Kumbalangy, Aroor, Ezhupunna   Chellanam   Pallithode, Thuravoor, Cherthala

Geography

Chellanam is on a narrow landform about 10 km in length, starting from St. George Church at the southern end at the northern border of Pallithode village and Kattiparambu (near Thoppumpady) At the northern end it has a width of 250 metres, accommodating in between the villages of Chellanam, Maruvkad, Chalakadavu, Kandakadavu, Puthanthodu, Kannamaly, Cheriyakadavu and Kattiparambu. The landscape is filled with bungalows and courtyards.

There was a canal (azhi) passing through this place to the sea which later closed naturally and formed in a place called Andhakaranazhi in Alappuzha district.

There is a small road which connect chellanam village to Ezhupunna and Kumbalanghy.This road is also connect Our village to NH 47, which is simply connect to Alleppey...One of the Most Beautiful District in Kerala State. Main portion of Chellanam village consist of Pokkaly fields.According to the traditional practice, pokkali fields used to be prepared for paddy cultivation from the Vishu day, falling in April every year. The land had to be dried under the hot sun for almost a month, by which time the salt content left over from the prawn farming would be ready to be washed off by the first rain of the monsoon season. Otherwise, the salinity of the soil would persist, leading to the death of rice plants . Freshwater prawns are very hardy animals and do not die or diminish in quality when exposed to sunlight and soft muds for a short period of time. They can be collected in buckets or baskets and rinsed with clean water with few losses if they are not packed in extremely dense groups and not exposed to warm temperatures for more than 15 to 20 minutes.

Whenever possible, aeration devices for maintaining proper levels of dissolved oxygen should be located at the deep end of the pond adjacent to the drain basin area to minimize the accumulation of sediment there. Otherwise, aerators placed at the shallow end of a pond may produce depressions that will strand prawns as they follow the receding water during the drain harvest of a pond.

Selective harvest of large prawns by seining during a period of four to six weeks prior to final harvest has been practiced with the intent of increasing total yield from a pond during a growing season. Selection of the mesh size of the seine (one to two inches) will be dependent upon the desired harvest size of the prawn. Selective harvest may also be accomplished with properly designed traps. Prawns have been trapped using a wide array of traps traditionally designed for the harvest of crayfish. The reduction in population density caused by a partial seine or trap harvest results in an increase in the growth rate of the smaller prawns that remain. Through selective harvest, a freshly harvested product is available over a longer period of time. Insufficient research has been performed to determine conclusively whether a selective harvest practice is cost effective relative to a traditional, single bulk harvest at the conclusion of the growing season. Now we are host a website, which helps to collect all the details about our chellanam village.

Religion

Majority of the people are Latin Catholics. District includes Diocese of Cochin and Diocese of Alleppey. The local parishes in the Diocese of Cochin consist of St. Sebastian's Church in Chellanam. St. Antony's Church in Kannamaly, St. Joseph's Church in Cheriyakadavu and St. Francis of Assisi Church in Kattiparambu. Those in the Diocese of Alleppey are St. George's Church in Chellanam Xavier Desh church South Chellanam and St. Francis Xavier's Church in Kandakkadavu.

Hindus belonging to different communities such as Gowda Saraswatha Brahmins, Eazhava, Pulaya, Velan, Kudumbi, Ulladan etc. also live in Chellanam.

Economy

Most of the people make their living from fishing and agriculture. Fishermen work at deep-sea and fresh-water fishing, using the latest technologies.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census of India, Chellanam has 3446 households. The literacy rate of the village is 84.12%.^[2]

References