An evening at Vani Vilas Sagar dam

Posted by Photomithra(Srinivasa S) on Jul 10, 2016 | 1 comment

Vani vilas sagar dam is situated about 200km from Bangalore and close to the town of Hiriyur on NH-4. Its popularly known as Mari Kanive (ಮಾರಿ ಕಣಿವೆ)  in Kannada. The dam itself was built during the late 1800s, early 1900s at the behest of the then Maharajas of Mysore. The dam is built across river Vedavathi. It provides valuable water for farming and domestic use to nearby districts of Hiriyur and Challakere.

The place around the dam is very picturesque. Imagine a body of water snaking amidst mild hills around it. The dam cuts across the water in the heart of the valley. The hills have lush green cover draping them all around, and till the waters in the valley below. The place is windy almost throughout the year. Hence there are giant windmills atop these hills, to harvest this natural source of energy. The dam has an east-west orientation which makes it ideal to visit either early in the morning or late in the evening.

We visited this place on a very windy monsoon evening. The wind carried waves and waves of dense monsoon clouds from west to east and brought along occasional spells of rain. We also got a peek at the blue skies in brief spells in between. But the winds stayed strong throughout the evening. The winds were so strong, that they would knock down our tripods. We had to secure them with a rag cloth carrying heavy stone slabs weighing down from the tripods’ center. Below are a few images from around this place. The timelapse video that follows shows the winds that we experienced.

After spending sometime at the dam, we explored and found a road leading behind the hills and near the water body. There were not many people around and the evening developed into a magical one with the clouds clearing up a bit more and the lighting was wonderful. Below are the images from there and also a short timelapse video too.