Tamil Nadu-Kerala dam row

rdf:langString Tamil Nadu-Kerala dam row

rdf:langString Tamil Nadu-Kerala dam row (alternatively India dam row) is an ongoing row and the long legal battle between the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala about the Mullaperiyar Dam on the Periyar river. Although the 126-year-old Mullaperiyar dam is located in Kerala, it is operated by the government of Tamil Nadu which signed a 999-year lease agreement with the former British government to irrigate farmland on its side. The agreement was signed by the Secretary of Madras State (now Tamil Nadu) under the British Raj and the King of Travancore. From several technical surveys conducted, Kerala states the old masonry dam built with lime surkhi mortar is structurally getting weaker and costly in leakage and massive cracks - shear maintenance in abutments above all poses a significant danger to an approximate 3 million people living in the region and that it needs to be rebuilt – a move opposed by Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu maintains that the endangered dam was repaired in 1979 and insists the dam's walls have been strengthened and that it can hold more water than the current level of 136 ft (41 m) and also due to the fact it only takes around 25,000 INR per year payment for an estimated usage of water for 8000 acres per British oppression era lease, this does not include how many tmc feet could be shared which is also a blissful loophole in the Mullayar-"Periyar Lease Deed of 1886" that the government is unwilling to waive. In a 1998 affidavit, the Tamil Nadu government admitted that it drew around 21 tmc ft or 594636000000 L (Five hundred ninety-four billion, six hundred thirty-six million litres) annually for around 230,000 acres. Although the Periyar River has a total catchment area of 5398 km2 with 114 km2 downstream from the dam in Tamil Nadu, the catchment area of Mullaperiyar Dam itself lies entirely in Kerala and thus its water source is not an inter-State river. Protests, calling for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene, erupted across Kerala demanding construction of a new dam to replace the Mullaperiyar dam. These new protests were triggered by recent low-intensity earthquakes that prompted scientists to say the dam could not withstand more intensive tremors. The public and scientific consensus over the seismic vulnerability of the Mullaperiyar dam in Kerala, and Tamil Nadu's resistance in accepting the vulnerability of the Dam has strained the inter-state relationship since the 2000s. This was followed by the chief minister of Kerala's meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to try to resolve the damaging row with neighbouring Tamil Nadu. As the row intensified, police in Kerala banned gatherings of more than five people at the dam near the Tamil Nadu border. The move was followed by clashes between people from the two states near the town of Kumali. In the country's capital, Members of Parliament from Kerala and Tamil Nadu clashed in India's upper house of parliament over the Issue. However, the issue is at large in multiple dimensions like water shortage, right to protection, etc. Thousands of people of Kerala have formed a 208 km human wall in the following day to demand a replacement to the dam although Tamil Nadu insists it is safe and that water levels can be raised. The protest was led by the opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF) in which politicians, social activists and families along the way took part. The central government has invited senior officials from both states to discuss the issue later in December 2011. In May 2014, Supreme Court of India ruled that the water level in the dam can be increased from 136 ft to 142 ft. It also struck down Kerala Irrigation Water Conservation Act and constituted a permanent Supervisory Committee to oversee all the issues concerning Mullaperiyar dam. In a UN report published in 2021, the dam was identified as one among the world's big dams which needs to be decommissioned for being 'situated in a seismically active area with significant structural flaws and poses risk to 3.5 million people if the 100+ years old dam were to fail'.