NEW DELHI: Kerala on Thursday blamed Tamil Nadu for worsening the already grim flood situation in the state by suddenly releasing huge quantities of water from Mullaperiyar dam on August 15, leading to a cascading effect and forcing the Pinarayi Vijayan government to open the shutters of downstream dams.

Seeking change in the Mullaperiyar dam management system, Kerala chief secretary Tom Jose's affidavit before the Supreme Court said the flood situation worsened in the state as Tamil Nadu ignored requests from Kerala for gradual release of water and allowed the water level to rise to 139 feet. All of a sudden, on August 15 midnight, Tamil Nadu opened 13 shutters of Mullaperiyar dam and discharged 9,000 cusecs of water in 10 hours, he claimed.

The chief secretary said, “In the backdrop of past history of sudden upsurges of water level in the Mullaperiyar reservoir, we were very vigilant. The water level in the reservoir had crossed 136 feet at 4 am on August 14. By 2 pm the same day, the inflow to the reservoir almost doubled and the water level reached 137 feet.”

He said the Kerala government asked Tamil Nadu to maintain the water level at 139 feet and start gradual release of water. “But no positive assurance in this regard was received from Tamil Nadu. The district administration was evacuating people from Idukki dam , where spillway releases were increased from 883 cusecs to 15,892 cusecs from 11 am on August 14,” he said.

Holding this to be the reason for submergence of vast downstream areas, Jose said there must be a system in place in the dam management for gradual release of water the moment the level touches 136 feet. This will give sufficient time to the administration to evacuate people, he said.

TN asked to bring down water level in Mullaperiyar

A central panel on Thursday asked TN to take steps to bring down the water level in Mullaperiyar dam to 139 feet from the present 142 feet. The issue was discussed at a special meeting of Disaster Management sub-committee of the Mullaperiyar Dam on Thursday in view of the Supreme Court's direction.

