Mullaperiyar - What is the real Dam issue?
Read this article to know about the Mullaperiyar (Mullaiperiyar) Dam, peculiarity and the anxiety it is causing to the Government and people of Kerala. The sudden apprehension is due to the bout of earthquakes around the area. Mullaperiyar dam is unique as the dam, reservoir and water is in Kerala but is for Tamilnadu. Mullaperiyar Dam problem, The hidden agenda of the issue, Kerala politicians attitude, Role of Supreme Court and Central Government are provided here.
Mullaperiyar Dam
The Mullaperiyar dam (Mullaiperiyar Dam) is across the Periyar River on the Cardamom Hills of the Western Ghats in Thekkadi, Idukki district of Kerala State of India. The dam was built during the years between 1887 and 1895. This was constructed by the then British Government for diverting the waters of the Periyar River towards east to the then Madras presidency (now Tamil Nadu). The river and dam are owned by Kerala but is controlled and operated by Tamil Nad under a lease agreement. The dam is at the site where the rivers Mullai and Periyar join and hence it is called the Mullaperiyar dam.
The dam is built of masonry and is a gravity type of dam. In gravity type dam the gravity of earth holds down the dam against the push or pressure of water. In this type the dam's mass weight resist the pressure of water. The engineer concerned design the dam in such a way that the dam is heavy enough so that the gravity force is stronger than the water pressure. The foundation will be deep and strong to last. The dam has a length of 1200 feet (366 m) and height of 176 feet (54 m) from foundation level. It is at a height of 2900 feet above sea level. The Thekkadi National Park is around this dam's reservoir.
The dam is in the state of Kerala and the river and water is also of Kerala but the control of the dam and the water is for Tamilnadu. Of course at that time it was not the present states but was the Travancore State and the Madras Presidency. The dam and diversion of the water was on the basis of an agreement between the Maharaja of Travancore under whose land the area fell and the representative of the British Madras Province. The agreement was reached on October 29, 1886. The agreement was to lease about 8,000 acres of land for 999 years for the dam and reservoir for diverting the water flowing towards west to eastward to Vaigai River in Tamilnadu (the then Madras Presidency) for irrigating the barren land. Since it was a very difficult task the British used the Army for building the dam.Mullaperiyar Dam problem
From Kerala's point
The visible or apparent issue is the safety of the dam. Why suddenly the issue of safety of the dam has cropped up? The dam is about 120 years old. There were earthquakes in the area. According to Kerala the area is earthquake prone and the dam may not withstand the quakes. Therefore as a safety measure Kerala wants to construct a new dam and decommission the existing one. As against this the Tamil Nad has stated that the safety of the dam was vouched by expert committee several times recently and the Supreme Court has accepted the opinion of the committee. However, another report on safety by the IIT, Roorkee the dam may not be able to withstand the quakes of magnitudes higher than 6 on Richter scale. However, the International Council of Scientific Unions under International Lithosphere Program of Global Seismic Hazard Assessment Program (GSHAP) developed maps showing zones of earthquake hazards of various levels. These maps did not show the area of Idukki or the entire Kerala near the zone of earthquakes of 6 on the Richter scale. Some Indian experts have conducted studies and concluded that the area around the dam does not have the risk of high intensity earthquake. The Supreme Court is satisfied with it.
Kerala proposes that the existing dam be demolished and a new one built. The state government's position is that, in the event of a major earthquake, if the Mullaperiyar dam breaks, three other dams in Kerala will also give way under the pressure of the water from the Mullaperiyar. As a result, 3.5 million people living in the danger zone in Kerala would be at risk. Kerala has assured Tamil Nadu that the quantity of water to that state will be maintained at the present level even after the new dam is constructed.From Tamil Nadu point
The Tamil Nadu's apprehension is that if the Mullaperiyar dam is demolished, the farmers of Melur, Madurai, Sivaganga, Thirumangalam and Usilampatti areas will be deprived of the water they are getting from Mullaperiyar and will turn into barren land. According to the engineers of Tamil Nadu, the dam is strong enough to withstand the pressure. Even if worst case of collapse happens to the dam the water will be contained in the Idukki Dam of the Kerala Electricity Board about 50 km from Mullaperiyar which has a storage capacity of 70.5 TMC ft. This is 7 times of that of Mullaperiyar dam. According to those engineers the detailed project report of the proposed new dam of Kerala is of 666 crores of which 400 crores go for demolition of the old dam. The report states that the dam is an intra state river and T N has no rights over the waters. The report is also reported to have reference to the effect that Kerala will provide water to T N depending on the availability. The engineers also point out that the river originates in the Sivagiri hills of Tamil Nadu. If this argument of the river being in Kerala and dam being leased by Tamilnadu, will they accept if Karnataka say that the River Kaveri originates and a major portion of the river flows through Karnataka, KRS Dam which releases water to Tamilnadu is owned and operated by Karnataka and hence the entire water will be used by Karnataka and if any surplus is there will be released to Tamil Nadu? As per the T N engineers the state of T N has lost a large quantity of water though the Supreme court has given a verdict to raise the storage level of water from 136 feet to 142 feet as Kerala has nullified the verdict by passing a legislation. The hidden agenda of the Mullaperiyar issue
It is lack of trust between the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu on the one hand and the politicalisation of the issue by the political parties of both states. Even the National parties of the 2 states are taking opposite stand in the respective states. The real issue of danger to lakhs of people who may be affected are totally forgotten by both the states. If it was the question of safety, both the states should have come together and appointed an experts committee of competent persons from both the states and from other states to study the issue of all possible dangers and the remedial measures of the same. Instead leaders of both states are interested in fooling the people of the respective states possibly to win some by elections that may take place. As for the Central Government and the Courts are concerned they will be guided by the respective arguments and whoever present the case more in detail will influence them. The Tamil Nad has presented its case strongly
The politicians whoever may have been in power of opposition are one on the issue and the bureaucrats of the state have also done a thorough home work on the issue and brought out a strong case in favor of the T N in a forceful way all along. However, they are oversimplifying the apprehensions of the Government and people of Kerala as pretense to gain control over the Dam, water and reservoir at Mullaperiyar.
The Tamilnadu side is making an attempt to project the apprehensions of the Government and people of Kerala as creating fear psychosis and dismisses it as a ploy of Kerala to undo the agreement. If it is so what about the apprehensions of Tamilnadu about the Kudankulam nuclear power project? The top most scientists and the Central Government has assured about the safety of the project. In addition to it none other than a person of the stature of the Ex President of India, Mr APJ Abdul Kalam who happens to hail from Tamilnadu itself has clarified about the safety aspect of the power plant after visiting the plant and discussing with the officials concerned. He himself is an eminent scientist. Is it that any possible danger is a danger only for Tamilnadu and people of Kerala are immune to dangers or are worthless and need not bother about the dangers? It is a strange position to adopt double standards on similar issues of possible dangers. Kerala leader's shallow attitude in Mullaperiyar Issue
The present situation of the dam, the control of the dam and benefits of water etc is due to an agreement between the then2 states under the British Raj, during the year 1886. At that time there was no choice as both the areas were under the British rule and the locals had to obey their dictates. But the agreement lapsed as the parties to the same changed after independence of our country. The agreement was renewed in 1970 between the present Tamil Nadu and the present Kerala when C Achutha Menon was Kerala Chief Minister. At that time of renewal the Kerala Government without giving thought to the interests of the people of Kerala renewed the lease with increase in the rent for the land. They should have resisted the agreement and revised the term to make it under the control of Kerala with only water being supplied to Tamilnadu. Achutha Menon was considered as the best Chief Minister of Kerala so far. That best chief Minister's party is an important partner of LDF. Therefore the protests of the LDF and the UDF are like allowing the horses to escape from the stable and shutting the door of the stable to prevent the escape of the horses. The political leaders and the Government officials of Kerala has not done any in depth study or even a sincere attempt to understand the issues and put forward their case in a logical and convincing manner to the third parties. Kerala is apprehending the loss of life of laks of people if the dam breaks. But what have they done to protect the lives in the event of such an occurrence? They have not arranged any analysis on dam break by any experts. They have not arranged to study the effects of inundation if the Mullaperiyar and Idukki dams fail. They can spend laks of Rupees per sitting for an outside advocate to appear in prostitution case but did not find money to appoint expert to study the danger and way out in case of the dam failure. These studies could have helped the case of Kerala in the Supreme Court. Instead of attending to that what is the use of the then chief minister declaring that he is going to sit in hunger strike. It is only to gain political mileage over the rivals. The S C observed that the raising of the height of the dam will not affect Kerala in any way.
According to the S C if there is failure of the Mullaperiyar dam the water from the reservoir will be contained in the Idukki reservoir. The incorrectness of the fact was not established in time in the court and now the shedding of the crocodile tear is just to fool the public. At that time it was not even pointed out that there were around 80,000 strong population living in the area between the 2 dams even if the S C observation on the containing of the water in the Idukki dam was agreed for arguments sake. It should have been pointed out that though the Idukki Dam is 7 times more voluminous than Mullaperiyar, The Idukki Dam need not be in empty condition to take additional water of Mullaperiyar and the force of the gushing water may break this dam also. While that is the case of the LDF the UDF has not done anything till now to study and find out the estimated area that would be inundated, the population going to be affected in the area and the distances between the present places and the places of possible rehabilitation centers and the time required to reach the destination centers, if the dam fails. Even now if the political parties of Kerala are genuinely and sincerely believe in helping the innocent population going to be affected, should forget at least for this issue of their rivalries and sit together and work together to do the damage control of the situation. Instead of the ministers, Ramesh Chennithalas, Kodiyeri Balakrishnas, Pinarais and Achuthanandans visiting and standing on the dam and getting photographed and video graphed to fool the public, they should appoint experts of the concerned fields on all India level get the dam inspected quickly and get the findings which not only the Supreme Court but the Central Government and even the Tamil Nadu Government has to take cognizance of. As of now both the Kerala and Tamil Nadu state Governments and the political parties of the 2 states are taking their stand keeping their eyes on the votes and not on the sufferings of the people of the respective states. Role of Supreme Court and Central Government in Mullaperiyar Issue
The Center and the S C should step in to ensure that the aspect of the safety of the dam and the people is looked into without any doubt as it is a question of the lives of the lakhs of people. If the dam is found to be unsafe an appropriate decision need be taken to address the dangers and the consequences thereof on urgent footing. The Central Government should stop dithering on the issue to prevent the Mullaperiyar issue from becoming another issue of unmanageable proportion like the Telungana, Manipur and Lok Pal etc.
The central Government should take the main opposition party, the BJP into confidence and arrive at an impartial solution in such a way that the solution will be applied to all interstate disputes without the consideration of the vote banks. Both the Indian national Congress and the Bharathiya Janata Party should rise above the parochial and narrow considerations sinking their differences at least temporarily reach a compromise of this issue as well as other burning issues of the countries. If they reach an understanding the opportunistic regional parties and the so called civil societies who are blackmailing these two National parties can be kept in check and leash. They will really be doing great service to the Nation and its People.
The central Government had called Kerala and T N for discussion to sort out the issue. The S C also has deputed 2 of the members of its Empowered Committee on Mullaperiyar dam dispute to study the damage caused to the dam by the recent earthquakes. Let us hope that the political leaders and the bureaucrats of Kerala will at least temporarily for the time being prepare a strong case to convince these 2 attempts if they feel the dam has a possible danger situation and about 3 and half million of its population is going to be affected.
Let us hope that wise counsel will prevail on these two National parties to save the Nation.
Job oriented
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