Kovalam is a
beachA beach is a geological landform along the shoreline of a body of water. It usually consists of loose particles which are often composed of rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, or cobblestones...
town on the
Arabian SeaThe Arabian Sea is a region of the Indian Ocean bounded on the east by India, on the north by Pakistan and Iran, on the west by Arabian Peninsula, on the south, approximately, by a line between Cape Guardafui, the north-east point of Somalia, Socotra, Kanyakumari in India, and the western coast...
in
KeralaKerala , is a state located in southwestern India. The state was created in 1956 on linguistc basis, bringing together those places where Malayalam formed the principal language...
, a state in
south IndiaSouth India, also known as the Dravida in the Indian anthem, is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of area...
. It is located around 13 km from downtown
Thiruvananthapuram, also known as Trivandrum, is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala and the headquarters of the Thiruvananthapuram District. It is located on the west coast of India near the extreme south of the mainland. Referred to by Mahatma Gandhi as the "Evergreen city of India", the city is...
(Trivandrum).
History
Kovalam was brought to the public eye by the Maharaja of Travancore. The European guests of the then Travancore kingdom discovered the potentiality of Kovalam beach as a tourist destination in the 1930s. However, Kovalam shot into limelight in the early seventies with arrivals of the masses of
hippieThe hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the early 1960s and spread around the world. The word hippie derives from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district...
s. That started the transformation of a casual fishing village of Kerala into one of the most important tourist destinations in all India- the Kovalam beach. It is a beautiful place in Kerala.
Beaches
Kovalam has three crescent shaped beaches separated by rocky outcroppings. Shallow waters stretching for hundreds of metres are ideal for swimming. The beaches have steep palm covered headlands and are lined with shops that offer all kinds of goods and services.
The larger of the beaches is called Light House Beach for its 35 metre high light house which towers over it atop Kurumkal hillock. The second largest one is Hawah Beach named thus for the topless European women who used to throng there. It was the first topless beach in India. Topfree bathing and parading is banned now except in private coves owned by resorts. Visitors frequent these two beaches. The northern part of the beach is known as Samudra Beach in tourism parlance. A large promontory separates this part from the southern side. Samudra Beach doesn't have tourists thronging there or hectic business. The local fishermen ply their trade on this part. The sands on the beaches in Kovalam are partially black in colour due to the presence of
ilmeniteIlmenite is a weakly magnetic titanium-iron oxide mineral which is iron-black or steel-gray. It is a crystalline iron titanium oxide . It crystallizes in the trigonal system, and it has the same crystal structure as corundum and hematite....
and thorazite. The normal tourist season is from September to May. Ashoka beach is also the part of Kovalam beach.
Tourist facilities
There are a large number of beach resorts in and around Kovalam. The sea port of
VizhinjamVizhinjam is a small coastal Town in Thiruvananthapuram District of Kerala state, South India. There is a large sea port in Vizhinjam. Kovalam beach is just 3 km from Vizhinjam. The areas in and around Vizhinjam are known for its Ayurvedic treatment centers and internationally acclaimed beach...
is about 3 km away and famous for its special varieties of fish, old Hindu temples, big churches and a mosque. The Proposed International Trans shipment Terminal at
VizhinjamVizhinjam is a small coastal Town in Thiruvananthapuram District of Kerala state, South India. There is a large sea port in Vizhinjam. Kovalam beach is just 3 km from Vizhinjam. The areas in and around Vizhinjam are known for its Ayurvedic treatment centers and internationally acclaimed beach...
is also close to Kovalam.
Kovalam was among the most prominent
tourist spotTourism is the largest service industry in India, with a contribution of 6.23% to the national GDP and 8.78% of the total employment in India. India witnesses more than 5 million annual foreign tourist arrivals and 527 million domestic tourism visits...
s in India during the hippy era. It still has a high status among tourists, who arrive mostly from
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
and Israel. Kovalam is finding a new significance in the light of several
AyurvedicAyurveda is a system of traditional medicine native to India and practiced in other parts of the world as a form of alternative medicine. In Sanskrit, the word Ayurveda consists of the words , meaning 'life', and , meaning 'related to knowledge' or 'science'...
salons, and recuperation and regeneration resorts which provide a wide variety of Ayurvedic treatments for tourists.
Politics
Kovalam assembly constituency is part of
Trivandrum (Lok Sabha constituency)-Assembly segments:Trivandrum Lok Sabha constituency is composed of the following assembly segments:#Trivandrum#Kazhakuttom#Vattiyoorkavu#Nemom#Kovalam#Neyyattinkara#Parassala-Members of Parliament:Travancore-Cochin*1951: Annie Mascarene, Independent...
. The assembly constituency of Kovalam is represented by George Mercier of
CongressThe Indian National Congress is a major political party in India. Founded in 1885 by Allan Octavian Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji, Dinshaw Wacha, Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, Surendranath Banerjee, Monomohun Ghose, and William Wedderburn, the Indian National Congress became the leader of the Indian...
. He defeated the
independentIn politics, an independent is a politician who is not affiliated with any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do not feel that any major party addresses...
A. Neelalohitadasan Nadar (who represented the constituency four times earlier), in the 2006 Kerala legislative assembly elections. The
Left Democratic FrontLeft Democratic Front is one of the two major alliances that dominate the political life of the Indian state Kerala. This front is led by Communist Party of India . Since 2006 LDF controls a majority of 99 seats in the state legislative assembly. After the 2006 Assembly Election, veteran CPI...
candidate, Rufus Daniel of the
Janata Dal (Secular)The Janata Dal is a left of centre Indian political party led by former Prime Minister of India H.D. Deve Gowda. It was formed in July 1999 by the split of Janata Dal party.. It has political presence mainly in Karnataka. In Kerala, the party is part of the LDF government.Apart from Mr...
, came third.