100 Years Of Sacrifice

Mullai Periyar Dam

Mullai Periyar Dam stands as the symbol of sacrifice. It stands as the sign of conscientious work of millions of people and incomparable sacrifice of Colonel John Pennycuick.

Colonel John Pennycuick was a British Army Engineer and a member of the Madras Legislative Council who toiled hard for the construction of the Mullai Periyar dam.

Story behind it's construction

He saw that the Eastern districts like Theni, Madurai, Sivaganga and, Ramanathapuram in Tamil Nadu suffered from dreadful famine. People died out of hunger. At the same time, he found that Kerala was quite prosperous with adequate rain. Out of 42 rivers in Kerala, most of the rivers drained into the Arabian Sea. So he decided to build a dam and redirect the excessive water from the west to the east. It was a challenging task to build such a masonry dam.

He proposed his idea of building a dam to help peoples in the east. The British government approved his proposal and provided him with the required funds. But the landlords in Kerala were not ready to give up their lands. After a long struggle, they accepted to give their land.

Challenges met during dam construction

Then the construction work was started. The drastic climate in Kerala did not support the construction of the dam. Frequent rain and floods have ruined their works a number of times. During the time of floods, workers join their hands with each other and form a long human chain to withstand the force of stream rushing towards the dam!!! There will be another crew to rescue them after the flood. Some workers engage themselves in shifting the sandbags to a safe place.

They lost many of their sandbags in flood. Many people died by the attack of poisonous insects and snakes in those dense forests. All these disrupt ate up the money provided by the government. The British government was no more ready to spare money on this project. But Pennycuick was not ready to give up. He determined to complete the construction on his own. He went back to England and sold all his property there and came back with the required funds.

He started building the dam again more cautiously. The dam was built such that, it gets stronger when water flows through it!!!

Finally, the dam was built and inaugurated in the year 1895. Water rushed from the dam to the bare lands to make them prosperous and wealthy.

Lesson from their sacrifice

Pennycuick came to our country just to rule us. But he took pity on the suffering people and decided to help us, selling his own property.But we Indians are not bothered about our own homeland. Our government and Politicians spend a lot of money on worthless schemes. Instead, they can invest money in connecting all rivers, so that we can avoid excess draining water into the sea to help the area with water scarcity.

Nothing will change unless we change. We youngsters should start building a new prosperous India.