Mullaperiyar Dam : No Change In Water Level Required, Says Committee; Supreme Court Seeks Kerala's Response

The Supervisory Committee constituted by the Supreme Court for the Mullaperiyar dam has decided that there is no need to change the water level in the dam. Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati informed the Supreme Court on Wednesday about this decision taken by the Committee. The ASG further informed that the State of Kerala has expressed its dissent.

Day before yesterday, the Court had directed the supervisory committee to take an immediate decision on the appropriate water level, after certain petitioners raised alarm about the rising water level in the 126-year old dam(which is being managed by the State of Tamil Nadu) amid the heavy rains in Kerala.

"There was a meeting of the committee, the supervisory committee was seeing the issue on hourly basis. They have said no change is required. After minutes of meeting were drawn, Kerala has dissented, that they were not party of this", the ASG told a bench comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar.

Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta, appearing for the State of Kerala, submitted that there were devastating floods in Kerala in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and that the "dam itself is the cause of flooding".

"Is it (flood) attributable to the dam?Where do you get that?", Justice Khanwilkar asked.,

Gupta explained that when the water level increases during rains, water will have to be discharged from the dam, which will cause flooding.

Senior Advocate Shekhar Naphade, appearing for the State of Tamil Nadu, submitted that the Kerala's concerns were exaggerated. He referred to the statement by the Kerala Chief Minister in the Kerala Assembly that there was no reason to panic about Mullaperiyar issue.

"Today's (water level) position is 137.60 ft. Therefore, all these apprehensions are being unnecessarily magnified. Rainfall has abated. In social media in Kerala there is a continuous campaign going on. The Kerala Chief Minister has made a statement in the Assembly that all these apprehensions are misplaced, still the unfortunate part is that this campaign is going on", Naphade submitted. He added that as per the Supreme Court judgment, Tamil Nadu is entitled to maintain the water level till 142 feet.

"What we propose to do is, they say that the water level should not go beyond 139 feet. The water is anyway around 137. He says it shouldn't be 139. There's no forecast anyway. We are ready to hear this tomorrow", Justice Khanwilkar observed.

The bench has sought a response from Kerala to the committee's decision by tomorrow morning, and posted the matter for hearing at 2 PM tomorrow.

In 2018, the Supreme Court had passed an order that during floods, the water level in the dam should not cross 139 feet.

The bench was hearing two writ petitions filed by Kerala based parties seeking urgent directions to restrict the water level in the over 120 year old Mullaperiyar dam, which is being managed by the State of Tamil Nadu for drawing water to its districts.

Recently, one of the petitioners brought on record before the court the study report of n international body, "United Nations University-Institute for Water, Environment and Health", raising alarm about the situation of the Mullaperiyar dam in Kerala.