An all-party meeting convened on Wednesday by the Kerala Government authorised Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan and Water Resources Minister PJ Joseph to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking a just settlement of the protracted issue between the State and Tamil Nadu over the 118-year-old Mullaperiyar dam.
The Kerala delegation, which will visit Delhi whenever an appointment with Modi is available, will submit a memorandum requesting him to engage a team of national and international experts to examine whether the dam is safe enough for allowing Tamil Nadu to raise the reservoir water level to 142 feet as per the Supreme Court’s May 7 order.
Tamil Nadu, which maintains and controls the dam situated inside Kerala territory as per an 1886 agreement, had allowed the reservoir water level to go up to 142 feet - from the 136-feet mark considered to be relatively safe - ignoring the anxieties of the Kerala Government and the thousands of Keralites living in the downstream reaches of the allegedly age-weakened dam.
The water level in the dam, built with now-outdated Surki concrete technology and commissioned in 1896, had touched the 142-feet mark on November 20-21 night as inflow strengthened due to heavy rains and Tamil Nadu stopped drawing water from the reservoir thus spreading panic in Kerala, especially on the banks of the River Periyar on which the dam sits.
After the all-party meeting on Wednesday, Minister Joseph said, “A special committee comprising well-known national and international experts on dam affairs should be formed to study the strength of the dam. We will request the Prime Minister to constitute such a committee,” Joseph said.
The Minister also said that Kerala would bring to the notice of the National Green Tribunal the destruction caused by the raising of dam water level to wildlife habitats in the Periyar Tiger Reserve. Over 500 hectares of forest land with rich biodiversity in the Tiger Reserve had got submerged when the water level had touched the 142-feet mark.
Taking part in the meeting, Achuthanandan said the disturbance caused to the wildlife and their habitats due to the rising of the water level should be brought to the Supreme Court’s notice.
Earlier in the day, the Chief Minister said that Kerala was not against Tamil Nadu drawing the Mullaperiyar waters but it was concerned about the safety of the people.
Kerala believes that the 118-year-old dam, sitting on a seismic faultline in Kerala’s Idukki district, has got weakened over the years and any breach in the dam due to water pressure could lead to a catastrophe of unimaginable magnitude in Kerala affecting the lives of over 35 lakh people and decimating everything in five districts.
However, Tamil Nadu, for which the Mullaperiyar water is like life-blood for agriculture in its Theni, Madurai, Sivaganga, Dindigul and Ramanathapuram districts, assert that the dam is still strong enough to withstand the pressures of the water even if it is filled up to 142 feet or even to 152 feet.
Meanwhile, reports from Mullaperiyar said that a team of CISF personnel had visited the dam site the other day posing as Public Works officials. Tamil Nadu had demanded deployment of CISF personnel at the site for security instead of the Kerala Police in the context of Kerala mediamen and legislators making frequent visits to the dam and finding out leaks in it.