Kerala govt blames floods on TN's sudden water release

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 Mullaiperiyar 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 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 '19,500 crore.

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 Mullaiperiyar Dam, the third largest reservoir in the Periyar Basin. He said this forced Kerala to release more water from the Idukki reservoir, downstream of Mullaiperiyar, 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 Mullaiperiyar 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 Mullaiperiyar 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). Mullaiperiyar only has an effective storage capacity of 7.666 TMC and a Gross capacity of 12.758 TMC. 

Mullaiperiyar 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 Mullaiperiyar reservoir increases with rapidity when compared with Idukki.