Power generation in Kerala has touched a record high as hydel reservoirs have been filled to capacity due to copious rainfall but the situation has also led to intensification of panic among people living in downstream areas of the 117-year-old Mullepriyar dam from which water would begin to overflow with the level rising less than a foot more.
Water level in the Mullaperiyar reservoir, whose maximum permissible level is 136 feet, touched the 135.2-feet mark on Thursday evening plunging the people living in downstream areas like Chappath, Vallakkadavu and Vandipperiyar into panic. Though heavy rains have abated in the catchment areas of the dam, it has not caused any noticeable drop in the inflow into the dam.
The rate of water flow into the 8,000-acre reservoir on Thursday was 3,900 cubic feet per second but Tamil Nadu was drawing only 1,600 cubic feet per second. As per a 127-year-old agreement, Tamil Nadu is drawing the entire water of the dam, situated inside the Kerala territory on the inter-state border in Idukki district, for irrigating farmlands in its five southwestern districts.