Youth Protest for Dam Reconstruction By Ratheesh Sundaram

A peaceful candle light march demanding a reconstruction of 116 year old Mullaperiyar dam 

which is in a grave danger to the 35 lakh people of kerala . This march was in Sanghumugham Beach Trivandrum Kerala India

they made a pledge and later they did a peacful candle light march to the sand made dam at beach .

The Mullaperiyar dam is the bone of contention between Tamil Nadu state and Kerala

Its a 116 years old dam constructed

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. In 1960 a hydel project was established downriver at Idukky on the assumption that the waters would be available during the monsoons.

There was heavy colonisation of the areas down river in Kerala with land hungry people populating the area with a vengeance. Trees were cut down. Schools, colleges, hospitals and habitations sprang up all over the place. Micro-climatic changes followed, with rainfall falling. As time passed the Idukky dam failed to fill up. Power generation fell. The diversion at Mullaperiyar was blamed for all these happenings. Kerala wanted the storage level to be brought down to 132 feet. The then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MG Ramachandran readily agreed to the plea. When in the 1980s the level was brought down, Tamil Nadu suffered. Some 8,000 hectares in Tamil Nadu’s rain shadow districts suffered.

Pressure mounted on Tamil Nadu to raise the storage level again to 152. Kerela countered it with hectic campaigning at the centre and placating influential persons in Tamil Nadu. It has been reported that a study by the Centre for Earth Science Studies in Kerala had found that the dam will not be able to withstand an earthquake of the magnitude of six on the Richter scale at higher water levels if the epicentre of the earthquake is near the dam. Several earthquakes of lesser magnitudes have occurred in the state during the past two decades and scientists have predicted the possibility of earthquakes of magnitude six occurring in the state. The chances of an earthquake occurring in the vicinity of the dam too are high because of the presence of major lineaments and fault zones in the region.

Central government studies however held that this contention was unfounded and that with repairs the dam height could be raised. Then came the argument about threat to the wildlife population in the area. A study on the impact of raising of water level in the Mullaperiyar reservoir of the Periyar Tiger Reserve was carried out at the instance of the Chief Wildlife Warden of the state in 2001. The team included scientists from the Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI), the Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (TBGRI), Centre for Water Resource Development and Management (CWRDM) and the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON). The report has suggested that all kind of wild fauna including wild boar, gaur, sambar, otters, elephants and birds that nest in the reservoir will
be adversely affected if the dam height is raised.

One estimate of the crop losses to Tamil Nadu, because of the reduction in the height of the dam, between 1980 and 2005 is a whopping Rs. 40,000 crores. In the process the farmers of the erstwhile rain shadow areas in Tamil Nadu who had started a thrice yearly cropping pattern had to go back to the bi-annual cropping.

What will happen now? Will Kerala fall in line with the Supreme Court direction? The issue is expected to hot up only by the time the monsoons set over Kerala , One major problem that Kerala will face will be the heavy colonisation of the down river area which emerged after the reduction in the height of the Mullaperiyar dam. Vast colonised areas could be submerged.

Fotos e texto por Ratheesh Sundaram, Trivandrum, Kerala - India