The Mullaperiyar imbroglio

The debate over loss of agrarian productivity in Tamil Nadu versus quality of life in downstream Kerala is complicated.
ER Gopinath Chennai

Yet another inter-state discord has been added to the vexed confrontations over river water disputes. It is hoped that the Mullaperiyar dispute between Tamil Nadu and Kerala will not lend itself to election pyrotechnics because the storage in the Mullaperiyar dam will impact itself only when the south west monsoons commence in the southern peninsula in the second half of May.

The issue which has been simmering for the past few years hit the headlines on February 27, when the Supreme Court directed Kerala to raise the height of the dam on the Periyar river, diverting the waters to Tamil Nadu, to 142 feet from the present 136 feet. The direction was a sequel to the petition filed by Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy and the Tamil Nadu government in 1998. The appellants had sought court direction to Kerala to raise the height of the dam to 152 feet. Kerala had argued against the increase in the height of the dam on grounds of security of people living downriver. In September 2001 a “Mullaperiyar Environmental Protection Forum” had appealed to the court against the proposal to raise the height of the dam beyond 136 feet. But the three-judge bench had noted that such security fears were baseless, as found by a committee set up by the central government.

The Kerala political parties buried differences and passed a unanimous resolution in a hastily summoned meeting of the state assembly on March 15, passed a bill amending the State Irrigation and Water Conservation Act 2003 with the main objective to retain water level in Mullaperiyar dam at 136 feet in the wake of a Supreme Court order allowing Tamil Nadu to raise the level to 142 feet. The resolution will have to get clearance from the centre to become effective. If the legislation becomes law in Kerala, Jayalalithaa’s Tamil Nadu government is prepared to challenge it in the Supreme Court. Saifuddin Soz, Union Minister for Water Resources, has said that for the present the central government cannot intervene to get Kerala to obey the Supreme Court direction.

Dr Swamy has said that it is now for the Tamil Nadu government which has legal rights over the dam in Kerala territory to raise its height as per court order. The issue is getting politicised fast. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has criticised the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), which heads the United Progressive Alliance backed Democratic Progressive Alliance in Tamil Nadu, for remaining silent on the Mullaperiyar issue. The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) clashed with the DMK in Parliament on March 18 over the issue.

The whole problem has its roots in the past. The dam was conceived of as far back as in 1895 on the Periyar river to divert part of its waters eastwards into the rain shadow affected districts of the neighbouring Madras province, mainly the present Madurai and Ramnad districts. Kerala has some 44 rivers originating in the Western Ghats besides getting the benefit of the monsoons. Except for three of them, the rest flow westwards into the Arabian Sea. Periyar is probably the third largest. At that time the Maharaja of Travancore agreed to lease the dam site for 999 years to the then Madras government. The Army Engineering Corps constructed the dam in Idukky to district divert part of the Periyar waters to Tamil Nadu. The first dam was washed away in the rainy season. The British Army Engineering corps took up the work as a personal assignment, raised funds for the purpose and completed the dam. This arrangement, with the Tamil Nadu staff manning the sluice gates and other works continued till the 1980s. Tamil Nadu by an unwritten agreement sold rice to Kerala. The arrangements continued even till after independence and helped control floods in Kerala.