History Of Mullaperiyar Dam – Thekkady
The much controversial Mullaperiyar Dam stands after the confluence of the Mullayar and Periyar rivers in Idukki, and has been so named. In 1886, the then Maharaja of Travancore, forced by the British, signed an indenture with the Secretary of State for India for Periyar irrigation works for a lease period of 999 years. And by this clause, parts of Tamil Nadu such as Theni, Madurai, Sivaganga and Ramanathapuram will be irrigated by the water diverted by the dam and at a later stage, the electricity produced from it. The construction of the dam started in 1887 and it started operations in 1895. It is a masonry gravity dam running a length of 1,200ft and a height of 176ft.
The dam and its reservoirs are located within the Periyar National Park, Thekkady. More than two lakh acres of land is irrigated by the dam’s waters. The water is transported via a 1.6-km tunnel that reaches the Churuliyar and Vaigai rivers in Tamil Nadu.