Jalakanyaka Mermaid

It was created by award-winning sculptor Kanayi Kunhiraman on the beach in Thiruvananthapuram, close to the airport, in a park with other large sculptures.

Kerala's tourism department commissioned the work in 1990, and Kunhiraman took two years to complete it, accepting no payment. The figure is concrete cast over an iron framework and set about six feet into the ground. She measures 26.5 m (87 ft) long and 7.6 m (25 ft) tall, reclining in a shell-shaped pool roughly 32 m (105 ft) long. In October 2022 Guinness World Records recognised her as the largest merperson sculpture in the world.

The sculptor's intention

Kunhiraman developed the concept in consultation with local people. He has described Jalakanyaka not as a figure at rest but as a mermaid who has left the sea because it has become polluted — only to find the land contaminated as well. Her eyes are closed and her face is turned upward because she is appealing to the Sun. Her arms are only partly modelled, sinking away into the ground beneath her.

Controversy

The work was almost stopped before it was finished. The district collector ordered a stay on construction after complaints from the public that the sculpture was obscene. Kunhiraman appealed directly to Chief Minister K. Karunakaran, who directed the collector to allow the work to proceed. Kunhiraman had faced the same accusation over his nude Yakshi at Malampuzha, completed in 1969.

Later disputes have concerned her setting rather than her form. A decommissioned military helicopter installed nearby as a visitor attraction in 2020 drew years of objection from the sculptor, who argued it ruined the sculpture's surroundings. In October 2025 a private hospital used a digitally altered image of her in a breast cancer awareness campaign without his consent; he condemned the alteration and the advertisement was withdrawn.

Visiting

Shankumugham Beach lies on the western edge of Thiruvananthapuram, close to Thiruvananthapuram International Airport. There is no entry fee and no closing time; late afternoon into sunset is the busiest and best-lit period. A second Kunhiraman sculpture, Relaxation (1995), stands on the same beach, along with the Chacha Nehru traffic training park. The Arattu Mandapam here is the ceremonial bathing place of the deities of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple. Coastal erosion has been severe along this shore — a 2022 study measured up to 4.73 m per year on the surrounding stretch, and the beach road towards the airport has been closed as a result — so check local conditions before travelling.