Kerala pointed out the injustice in the 1886 lease and questioned its validity. However, the safety concerns of the 119-year-old dam for the safety of the people of Kerala in the event of a dam failure have been at the heart of disputes since 2009. Kerala`s proposal to close the dam and build a new one has been questioned by Tamil Nadu. Three years after that decision, the latest court order on Thursday shows that the Mullaperiyar Dam remains a bone of contention between Kerala and Tamil Nadu, with various interpretations of everything from the correctness of the 1886 agreement to its use to the structural safety of the project. The dam was built in the late 1800s in the princely state of Travancore (now Kerala) and handed over to the British presidency of Madras in 1886 with a 999-year lease. The agreement gave the Secretary of State of Tamil Nadu, a British civil servant, full rights to build irrigation projects on the land. The dam was built to divert part of the Periyar River eastward to feed the arid areas of Tamil Nadu. The agreement, signed in 1886 between Travancore Dewan V Ram Iyengar and Travancore-Kochi, John Child Hannington, based in Madras, contains seven clauses. Under the renewed agreement, the per-hectare tax for Kerala has been increased to Rs 30. The fee for Tamil Nadu has been set at Rs 12 per kilowatt per hour for electricity produced at periyar power plant with Mullaperiyar water.
This plant is located in Lower Camp, near the border with Kerala, in the Theni district of Tamil Nadu. In 1886, the then Maharaja of Travancore signed the “Periyar Lease Deed” with the British government, which considered the waters of Periyar useless to Travancore. He wanted to divert water to the dry regions of Tamil Nadu. The Maharaja signed the agreement after 20 years of resistance. The dam was built in 1895. The Madras government began producing electricity from Hydel in 1959. Later, the capacity was increased to 140 MW. On October 29, 1886, a 999-year lease agreement was signed between the Maharaja of Travancore, Visakham Thirunal Rama Varma, and the British Secretary of State for India. The lease was signed by Dewan of Travancore V Ram Iyengar and Madras Secretary of State J C Hannington. This lease was concluded after 24 years of negotiations between the Maharaja and the British. The lease agreement granted the Secretary of State for India the full right, power and freedom to construct and export on the leased land and to use all such irrigation and other related works exclusively in construction, manufacture and execution.
The agreement gave 8,000 hectares of land for the reservoir and another 100 hectares for the construction of the dam. The tax for each morning was ₹5 per year. The lease granted the British rights to “all waters” of the Mullaperiyar and its watershed for an annual rent of ₹40,000. [29] For Tamil Nadu, the Mullaperiyar Dam and Periyaru diverted waters serve as a lifeline for Theni, Madurai, Sivaganga and Ramnad districts, providing water for irrigation and drinking as well as power generation to the Lower Periyaru power plant. Tamil Nadu insisted on exercising the unfettered colonial rights to control the dam and its waters, based on the 1886 lease agreement. Although Kerala has said it does not want to break its commitments, Tamil Nadu has argued that the proposed new dam would call into question any existing water-sharing agreement. Since the dam conflict led to violent protests in both states until 2011, the dispute was no longer limited to the height of the water level. The control and safety of the dam and the validity and fairness of the lease agreement were points of contention between the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. [61] The Supreme Court ruled on February 27, 2006, allowing Tamil Nadu to raise the level of the dam to 152 feet (46 m) after it was reinforced.
In response, the Mullaperiyaru Dam was declared “vulnerable” by the Kerala government under the controversial Kerala Irrigation and Water Conservation Act of 2006. [62] Mullaperiyaru Dam[7][8][9] is a masonry dam on the Periyar River in the Indian state of Kerala[2][3][10] It is located 881 m (2,890 ft) above mean sea level on the Western Ghats cardamom hills in Thekkady, In the Idukki district of Kerala, in South India. It was built between 1887 and 1895 by John Pennycuick and was also concluded as part of an agreement to divert water eastward into the Madras Presidency Area (now Tamil Nadu). It has a height of 53.6 m (176 ft) from the foundation and a length of 365.7 m (1,200 ft). [2] Periyar National Park in Thekkady is located around the dam reservoir. The dam is under construction at the confluence of the Mullayar and Periyar rivers. The dam is located in Kerala on the Periyar River,[2][11] but is operated and maintained by the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu. [2] [12] [13] Although the Periyar River has a total watershed of 5398 km2 with 114 km2 downstream of the Tamil Nadu Dam,[14][15] the catchment area of the mullaperiyar Dam itself is entirely in Kerala and therefore not an interstate river. [16] [17] [18] However, under the principle of confiscation, this is considered different. On November 21, 2014, the water level reached 142 feet for the first time in 35 years. [19] The reservoir again reached the maximum limit of 142 feet on August 15, 2018 after relentless rains in the state of Kerala. [20] After several unsuccessful attempts to renew the agreement in 1958, 1960 and 1969, the agreement was renewed in 1970 when C Achutha Menon was Chief Minister of Kerala.
According to the renewed agreement, the tax per hectare was increased to ₹30, and for electricity produced in the lower camp with Mullaperiyar water, the fee was ₹12 per kiloWatt per hour. Tamil Nadu uses water and land, and the Tamil Nadu government has been paying the Kerala government for 50 years – 2.5 lakhs as a tax per year for the whole country and ₹7.5 lakhs per year as an extra for the total amount of electricity produced. [29] [31] The validity of this agreement is disputed between the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Since 2013, the case has been pending before a divisional panel of the Supreme Court. [32] [33] [34] [35] The dispute calls into question the Indian federal government`s power to issue valid orders that respect Indian states, in this case with respect to a watershed and a dam within a state used exclusively in another state. [36] The agreement was renewed in the 1970s by the two state governments of independent India. Tamil Nadu received the rights to the dam`s land and water, as well as authority to develop hydropower projects at the site, and Kerala received rent in return. The five districts of Tamil Nadu facing severe water shortages are the beneficiaries of the agreement.
In addition, Tamil Nadu produces electricity amounting to Rs 700 crore from the Hydel power plant using water diverted from the Mullaperiyar Dam in the Vaigai River in Tamil Nadu. .