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MULLAPERIYAR

    Mullaperiyar Dam is a dam in Idukki district of Kerala.  This dam is located in Peerumedu Taluk, Kumily Gram Panchayat.  The Mullayar, known as the Periyar river, is a confluence of various tributaries originating from the Sivagiri mountains on the Tamil Nadu border in this panchayat.Mullaperiyar Dam is a dam built across the Mullayar River.  The Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary in Thekkady is located around the reservoir of this dam.  A certain amount of water stored in the Mullaperiyar Dam is used for irrigation and power generation in Tamil Nadu. Water is transported from the dam to Tamil Nadu through penstock pipes.The main purpose of the Mullaperiyar Dam was to divert the water from the Periyar River in Kerala, which flowed into the Arabian Sea, to the Bay of Bengal by building a dam to provide agricultural water to Madura, Ramanathapuram, Dindigal, Kambam, Theni and other areas of Madras suffering from severe drought.  The water supply to this area was through Vaigai river.  Another major objective of this project was that if the Mullaperiyar Dam is implemented, more water will be available from Mullaperiyar than the water available through Vaiganadi.


The present dam was built by British Army engineers and workers.  With this, the Periyar lake also took shape.  The water started pouring into Vaigai.


 Governor Kannimara Prabhu of Madras government cut the tree and inaugurated the project.  At Thekkady, they built shelters for the caretakers and shelters for the workers.  Cutting huge trees was a heroic effort.  The workers came first from Ramanathapuram.  The wages were six (38 paisa) a day.  But when Malampani and others threatened, laborers had to be brought from Kambam and Tirunelveli.  Portuguese carpenters were brought from Kochi and lime plasterers from Kutch and Coimbatore in Gujarat.  Hand-drilled augers were tried to excavate the site for the dam, but because it was too time-consuming, mechanized drilling equipment soon came into use.


 The dam was constructed by breaking and stacking the granite in six inches and using mortar and pestle. The construction materials were brought to the project area of the dam by roads, waterways and railways.  The temporary dam was flooded twice.  Along with that, the workers also left.  There were also attacks by elephants and other wild animals.  About five thousand people worked there at various times for the construction of the dam.  76 died during the construction phase in 1892, 98 in 1893, 145 in 1894 and 123 in the following Kollam. An entire 5704 ft limestone tunnel was constructed from the dam's reservoir to the Vaigana River in Tamil Nadu.As Mullaperiyar became a controversial issue, many official and unofficial studies on the safety of the dam were conducted by various institutions.  Every study report dismissed Kerala and Tamil Nadu citing one reason or the otherIn 2014 while passing the final verdict, the Supreme Court constituted a permanent Supervisory Committee to oversee all the aspects of the Mullaperiyar dam. The Supervisory Committee consists of three members headed by member from the Central Water Commission of The Water Resource Ministry who will act as the chairman of the Supervisory Committee and two other members from the respective states.


To assist the three member supervisory committee, a five-member sub-supervisory committee was formed comprising two officials from both the respective States and a member from the Central Water Commission acting as the head.


    Built as part of the Periyar Vaiga Irrigation Scheme to irrigate the valleys of the Vaiga River in Tamil Nadu, the dam has long been the subject of a dispute between the two states.  Tamil Nadu demanded that the water level be raised, but the Kerala government rejected the demand, saying it would affect the safety of the dam.  It was with the flood of 1961 that arguments and counter-arguments about the dam's safety really arose.  A leading newspaper, The Times of India, reported at the time that the aged dam, constructed of surki mix, could not withstand heavy floods and was therefore a safety threat to the people living in the dam's valley.  On 7 May 2014, the judgment of the Supreme Court's Anchanga Bench came in favor of Tamil Nadu.  This verdict was totally against Kerala.  The then Supreme Court judgment said that the water level could be raised from 136 feet to 142 feet and a three-member committee would be appointed to monitor the dam.


Farhana K

S1B.Com Computer Applications

Al Shifa College of Arts and Science 

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