Water from Mullaperiyar by TN a cause for flood: Kerala

Kerala has told the Supreme Court that sudden release of water from Mullaperiyar dam was one of the causes of the deluge in the state, which has claimed lives of 373 people and forced evacuation of 12.5 lakh people to 3941 odd camps.

In an affidavit, the state sought a direction to set up a management committee, reporting directly to the supervisory committee, to manage the day-to-day operations of the Mullaperiyar dam.

The top court had on August 17 directed for considering to lower the water level from 142 to 139 feet at the Mullaperiyar dam, saying there was a crisis in view of Kerala flood.

The court had then directed the Kerala chief secretary to file an affidavit detailing the steps for relief and rescue measures undertaken to deal with the situation.

In its response, the state government said it was managing the spate by controlling the spill and letting a major portion of the flood waters to escape to the sea. This was done by implementing a strict operational control over the spill of two largest reservoir systems of Idukki and Idamalayar in synchronisation with eight other small reservoir systems.

“But the sudden release from Mullaperiyar dam, third largest reservoir in the Periyar basin, forced us to release more water from Idukki reservoir, downstream of Mullaperiyar, which is one of the causes of this deluge,” it said.

The state government also listed out relief measures being undertaken as more than 54 lakh people out of total population of 3.48 crores were directly affected by the deluge.