Mullaperiyar dam in Kerala has completed 125 years today. An engineering marvel and a lifeline for five dry districts of Tamil Nadu it has contributed a lot. More than 3,000 workers had sweated for eight years, braving cold weather, incessant rain, wild animals and deadly diseases like cholera and malaria to build the 175-ft-high dam. It was the great Madras famine of 1876-78 that propelled the then British government to build a dam across Periyar so that the water could be redirected to the Vaigai river for irrigating the farmlands of Madurai, Theni, Dindigul, Sivaganga and Ramanathapuram districts in Tamil Nadu.

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An agreement was signed in October 1886 between the Maharaja of Travancore and then Madras Presidency, by which 8,100 acres of land were rented out for building the dam. Furthermore, the dam transformed the lives of the citizens of Theni who started worshipping Pennycuick as a demigod. However, as years passed, the dam was caught in an interstate dispute with Kerala raising concerns about its strength and demanding the construction of a new dam.

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Tamil Nadu opposed, flagging the way for a lengthy legal battle and hostility between the two states. Meanwhile, residents in the downstream areas of the dam formed the Mullaperiyar Samrakshana Samithi (MSS) and launched an agitation in 2006. They clarified that in the event of a dam breach, the water will wash away five districts in Kerala and snuff out 35 lakh lives. The demonstrations that lasted till 2014 fizzled out as Kerala accepted the SC verdict and announced the dam safe.

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