River             Thamirabarani

Country         India

State             Tamil Nadu

District           Tirunelveli , Thoothukudi

Tributaries

-left               Karaiyar, Servalar, Gandananathi, Chittar River

-right             Manimutharu, Pachaiyar

Cities            Tirunelveli, Ambasamudram

Source           Pothigai hills

Discharge     Sri Vai Kundam

                                                                   Image source : http://bit.ly/1Sb0AUV

The Thamirabarani River originates from the famous Agastyarkoodam peak in the hills of Western Ghats above Papanasam in the Ambasamudram taluk and flows through Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi districts of Tamil Nadu state of Southern India .

The River Thamirabarani starts in pothigai hils and ends in srivaikundam. This is the only Perennial river of TamilNadu . The river irrigates around 120 square kms of agicultural lands in Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi districts. It is the only source of drinking water for the people of Tirunelveli district. They consider the river as the mother of all and attaches a spiritual importance to it , because they rely upon this river for agriculture .

At first a well known American Cool Drink company called CocaCola was using 10 lakh litres of water per day for its production purpose from a place called GangaiKondan which comes under Tirunelveli district. Due to this process water scarcity prevailed and it affected agriculture a lot.

In this situation, recently our Tamilnadu Government has given license to a Multinational company PEPSICO to setup a factory in Gangaikondan SIPCOT in Tirunelveli district. The company entered into an agreement with the government to use the water from Thamirabarani river for the purpose of soft drinks manufaturing. A recent RTI filed by a locl resident has revealed that multinational company has been given a license to use 15 lakh litres of water everyday from the river for a period of 99 years lease.(note:CocaCola is using 10 lakh litres already)

If 25 lakh litres of Thamirabarani river water is used everyday for the purpose of soft drinks and mineral water manufacturing ,imagine the condition of the famers who are soley dependent on the river for irrigational purpose . Agriculture which is the back bone of Tirunelveli will be hugely affected without water and the land will become unusable .In few years there will be no farming land in Tirunelveli which will also largely affect the Economy and Food availability of Tamilnadu in the upcoming years.

The river is also the primary surce of drinking water for the residents of Tirunelveli district .If PEPSICO uses 15 lakh litre of water everyday , the people of Tirunelveli will have to beg other districts for drinking water .Can we drink Pepsi everyday instead of water?? We cant.

Many protesters are going against PEPSICO unit but the management is not concerned about it. So we request you to immediately look into the issue and take steps to stop the setting up of the soft drink plant by multinational corporate company PEPSICO and cancel the licenses issued , by spreading awareness all over .This will save our Thamirabarani being destroyed in the hands of corporate giants and will save millions of farmers .