Kerala
Natural Resources
The greatest resource of Kerala is her natural beauty with her blue mist - capped mountains, undulating hills and valleys of a thousand shades of green, the blue spread of an endless stretch of lagoons and long seacoast blessed by world famous beaches coupled with an amiable people of rich culture, and art forms which all together earned for her the sobriquet God's own country making her one of the biggest tourist attractions of the world.
Kerala's forests are rich with the pristine silent valley and Agasthyavanam biospheres home to a plethora of rare species of plants and animals making them one of the seven biological hot spots of the world. Kerala ranks 14th among all the States/Union Territories in respect of the geographical area under forest cover which as per 2003 assessment of FSI was 15577 sq.km (dense forest 334 sq.km moderate dense forest 9294 sq.km. and open forest 5949 sq.km.) Forest plantation constitutes major source of raw materials to the forest based industries. Teak is the major species planted in 75767 ha. followed by eucalyptus 14274 ha. softwood species 28832 ha. bamboo and reeds 5912 ha. Plantation crops 1712 ha.
Kerala has 41 west flowing rivers and three east-flowing rivers namely Pambar, Bhavani and Kabani. The biggest river system among the west flowing rivers is Bharatapuzha with most of its water impounded in the Parambikulam- Aliyar dam providing irrigation to Tamilnadu and its tributary Siruvani providing drinking water to Coimbatore. The major portion of water of the second biggest river system Periyar is impounded in the Mullaperiyar dam providing water for irrigation in the neighbouring districts of Tamil Nadu. Other important river systems are the Chaliyar, Pamba etc. Kerala also has constructed a number of irrigation dams like Malampuzha for irrigation purposes. There are 24 hydel projects owned by Kerala State Electricity Board with an installed capacity of 1883.60 M.W. Kerala has tremendous wind power with only a fraction of it tapped by the 2.25 MW wind farm at Kanjikode in Palakkad district and a 40 MW wind farm at Ramakkalmedu in Idukki district.
The water resources in the State are not abundant but over exploited. The drinking water projects of five corporations and most of the 53 municipalities are based on the water yielded by the west flowing rivers. Although Kerala gets a normal rain of 2360.6mm per year the topography of Kerala with undulating hills and valleys and deep rivers except the narrow strip of the coastal region allows poor retention of water. So rainwater retention structures and watershed management schemes are needed. In Kerala ground water occurs under phreatic, semi-confined and confined conditions. Ground water is largely concentrated in the sedimentary aquifers of the coastal regions. It is mainly tapped for drinking and to a lesser degree for irrigation. The ground water potential of Kerala is very low compared to that of other States. The replenishable ground water resource is only 6841 million cubic meters.
The State has all the requisite natural endowments for building a strong fisheries economy with 590 km. Coastal belt and inland water spread of over four lakh hectares. The exclusive economic zone lying adjacent to the coast is 36,000 sq.km. almost equivalent to the land area of the State. The State has a fresh water area of 158358 ha. consisting of reservoirs 42890 ha. private ponds 21986 ha. irrigation tanks 1847 ha. and the area of rivers 85000 ha. The brackish water resource consists of 65213 ha. of estuaries and backwaters and 12873 ha. of prawn filtration fields. The polders of Kuttanad have a water-spread area of 35,000 ha. Another 17000 ha. area of Kole lands of Thrissur is also ideal for aquaculture development activities.
Kerala is endowed with a number of deposits such as heavy mineral sand containing mainly thorium, titanium, lithium, zircon etc, china clay, iron ore, graphite and bauxite, silica sand, lignite, lime-shell, granite etc. However mineral sand and china clay contribute more than 90 percent of the total value of mineral production in the State.
Source: IT Department, Government of Kerala 
