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The Nehru Trophy Boat Race, a major water sport in Kerala, is conducted at 'Punnamada Lake' at Alleppey on the second saturday of every August.
The event is a commemoration of the visit to this place by the late Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, in 1952.
Jawaharlal Nehru donated a rolling trophy to be awarded to the winner. The trophy is a replica of a snake-boat in silver, placed on wooden abacus on which the following words of Panditji are inscribed above his signature.
"To the winner of the boat-race which is a unique
feature of community life in Travancore-Cochin".
Many different kinds of country-boats like Iruttukuthy, Veppu and Churulan also participate in the race; women and students also compete in the events over a distance of 4850 ft.
The beautiful scenery of the race area together with the exciting snake-boat race, will ever remain a cherished memory for the onlookers.
Alleppy, the land of lakes, lagoons and water courses, have had a prestigious and prosperous past. That is the reason why it earned the sobriquet, the Venice of the East.
Nehru Trophy Boat Race, the prestigious cultural event of Kerala, which has been attracting peoples all over the world for more than four decades now, is a unique aquatic fete.
Against the Sylvan backdrop of Kerala landscape, this aquatic festival fosters a sense of unity and fraternity and sportsman spirit among the hundreds of participants as well as the thousands of spectators.
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