Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 23

Kerala on Thursday blamed Tamil Nadu for unprecedented floods that claimed more than 400 lives and damaged property worth thousands of crores of rupees, saying it was caused by sudden release of water from Mullaperiyar dam.

In an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, Kerala Chief Secretary Tom Jose said the state was managing the spate of water by controlling spill and letting a major portion of the flood waters to escape to the sea by implementing a strict operational control over the spill of the two largest reservoir systems of Idukki and Idamalayar in synchronisation with eight small other reservoir systems in the Periyar basin.

"But the sudden releases from the Mullaperiyar Dam, 3rd largest reservoir in the Periyar Basin, forced us (Kerala) to release more water from the Idukki reservoir, downstream of Mullaperiyar, which is one of the causes of this deluge," the affidavit stated.

Mullaperiyar reservoir, which is wholly situated in the territory of state of Kerala, in the upper reaches of the Western Ghats above Idukki reservoir, is being operated by the government of Tamil Nadu. Idukki reservoir has a catchment area of 650 sq km and Mullaperiyar reservoir has a catchment area of 624 sq km.

The deluge faced by Kerala was unprecedented in its recent history and it has already surpassed the devastation caused by the 1924 floods. It was now considered the most intense flood to have hit Kerala in the last 100 years as 13 of the 14 districts were affected and 774 of the total 1,564 villages were inundated. Of its population of 3.48 crore, more than 54 lakh people i.e. one-sixth of the state's total population was directly affected by the deluge, the affidavit stated.

Kerala said, "The District Administration at that time was frantically evacuating people from the downstream of Idukki Dam, where spillway releases were increased gradually from 883 cusecs to 15892 cusecs from 11 am of 14/08/2018. At that time there was uncertainty about the water level at Mullaperiyar reservoir and thus state of Kerala was forced to increase the spillway releases to 21,188 cusecs at 7 pm on 14/8/18 to 35,315 cusecs at 8 am on 15/08/18."

"In the meantime, from Mullaperiyar reservoir water was suddenly discharged by opening all the 13 shutters to Idukki downstream at midnight 2.40 am on 15/08/2018. Discharge continued and around 9,000 cusecs water was let out between 8 am to 1 pm to 21,450 cusecs at 2 pm on 15/08/2018," read the affidavit filed in response to a PIL in the top court on the issue.

It said, "With a view to have sufficient flexibility of operation during moderate to high floods, it is imperative that Mullaperiyar reservoir should have enough manoeuvrability. Consequently, we feel that the gradual releases should start when the water level reaches 136 feet itself, so that there should be at least 1.548 TMC space, which translates into 17,917 cusecs for 24 hours, thus we would get at least 24 hours response time to evacuate people and can avoid flash flooding of the downstream area."

The Kerala government suggested that with a view to avoiding a repeat of such situations, the Supervisory Committee should be headed by the Chairman, Central Water Commission, with Secretaries of both states as members and it "ought to be empowered to take decisions by a majority opinion regarding operations during flood or any similar crisis".

The affidavit said, "There must be a Management Committee, reporting directly to the Supervisory Committee, to manage the day to day operations of the Mullaperiyar Dam. We propose that this Committee be headed by a Chief Engineer/ Superintending Engineer of the CWC with both Chief Engineers/Superintending Engineers of the two States."

The Centre had on August 23 told the Supreme Court that the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) dealing with devastating floods in Kerala has decided to reduce water level in Mullaperiyar dam to check additional inflow to avert further disaster.

The top court is seized of a PIL filed by a man from Kerala who wanted the structural safety of the dam to be entrusted to a statutory committee till the flood waters receded. There was no cooperation between Kerala and Tamil Nadu and people living near the dam were under fear of getting washed away, the petitioner's counsel had alleged and demanding to ensure safety of those living downstream.