Kerala blames Tamil Nadu for not maintaining dam water level

New Delhi: Ahead of the Friday hearing the Kerala government informed the Supreme Court on Thursday that despite addressing the need for maintaining the water level at 139 ft in Mullaperiyar dam to avoid floods, there was no positive assurance from Tamil Nadu authorities for this request.

On the overall flood situation, the Kerala Chief Secretary said the deluge faced by the State of Kerala is unprecedented in its recent history. It has already surpassed the devastation caused by the 1924 flood, it is now considered the most intense flood to have hit the State in the last 100 years.

The death toll touched 373 and 32 people are missing. The state has evacuated more than 12.5 lakh people to more than 3941 odd camps. 38 tonne Food materials along with medical supplies were air dropped to approximately 50,000 stranded people. The damage due to this deluge is approximately estimated at Rs.19500 Crores.

Making this assertion in an affidavit in response to the petition filed by Russsel Joy, the Kerala Chief Secretary blamed Tamil Nadu for the sudden releases from the Mullaperiyar Dam, the third largest reservoir in the Periyar Basin. He said this forced Kerala to release more water from the Idukki reservoir, downstream of Mullaperiyar, which is one of the causes of this deluge.

Kerala said it had raised the issue regarding operational flexibility of water release from the dam as early as in 2014, in the Supervisory Committee meetings and Tamil Nadu Government was directed to prepare a Gate Operation Schedule in this regard, fully taking into account flash floods in the downstream areas.

The draft gate operation schedule, which suggests an operation of spillway of Mullaperiyar reservoir, was found to be deficient by the Central Water Commission and their Hydrology Directorate (South). Kerala said with a view to having sufficient flexibility of operation during moderate to high floods, it is imperative that Mullaperiyar reservoir should have enough maneuverability.

Consequently Kerala suggested 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 Kerala would get at least 24 hours response time to evacuate people and can avoid flash flooding of the downstream area.

Kerala said while Idukki reservoir has an effective storage capacity (utilisable storage) of 51.543 TMC (Gross Capacity being 70.5 TMC). Mullaperiyar only has an effective storage capacity of 7.666 TMC and a Gross capacity of 12.758 TMC. Mullaperiyar therefore is exceptionally vulnerable because it has a large catchment area and limited storage capacity when compared to Idukki, which has a four times the storage capacity with almost similar catchment area. Consequently the water level in the Mullaperiyar reservoir increases with rapidity when compared with Idukki.

It said with a view to avoiding a repeat of such situations, State of Kerala wanted that the Chairman, Central Water Commission with Secretaries of both States as members, head the Supervisory Committee. This Committee ought to be empowered to take decisions by a majority opinion regarding operations during flood or any similar crisis.  Further it prayed that there must be a Management Committee, reporting directly to the Supervisory Committee, to manage the day-to-day operations of the Mullaperiyar Dam.

On the steps taken as flood relief, Government of Kerala sought immediate assistance of the armed forces and deployment of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) from the Union Government to address rescue and relief operations keeping in mind colossal magnitude of the flood spanning 13 of the 14 districts in the State.

In addition to this, the entire State machinery was galvanised to manage the disaster. Kerala has 1564 villages, and out of that 774 villages were inundated. Kerala has a population of about 3.48 crores. This deluge directly affected more than 54 lakhs, one sixth of the population.

It said that Central forces are presently deployed in addition to a large contingent of State Police, Fire and Rescue Personnel and the entire contingent of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF). Over and above this about 1,400 fishermen from coastal villages of Kerala rushed to the affected villages with their 600-odd country vessels.

They ventured into the most remote corners of the affected areas rescuing people. 59 rescue teams of NDRF with 207 boats, 23 columns of Army units with 104 boats, 94 rescue teams of Navy with 1 medical team, 9 helicopters, 2 fixed wing aircrafts and 94 boats and 36 teams of Coast Guard with 49 boats, 2 helicopters, 23 fixed wing helicopters, 2 fixed wing and 27 hired boats, were deployed.

Air Force provided 22 helicopters and 23 fixed 3 wing aircrafts, BSF provided 2 companies with one water vehicle team and10 teams of CRPF were deployed. 4100 Fire and Rescue Services personnel were engaged and they operated 69 Rubber Boats. Odisha fire services provided 244 Firemen and 63 Rubber Boats.