Maintain Mullaperiyar water at 139 ft: SC to Tamil Nadu

The Supreme Court on Friday directed Tamil Nadu, which controls the Mullaperiyar dam located in Kerala, to maintain the water level at 139 feet till August 31.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud considered the Centre's submission that the sub-committee of the Mullaperiyar dam had on Thursday directed the Tamil Nadu government to ensure that the water level was at 139 feet, 2 feet below the level the Supreme Court permitted some time ago.

The bench said that it would confine itself to disaster management in flood-devastated Kerala, which had in its submission on Thursday blamed part of the deluge on Tamil Nadu’s ‘sudden’ and ‘excess’ release of water from the dam.


Tamil Nadu countered the accusation by alleging that it “could be part of a sinister design” to circumvent the apex court's decision on the permissible limit.

The bench will hear the case again on September 6. “We’re only concerned with human lives,” CJI Dipak Misra clarified as the two states engaged in a blame game. Kerala had also sought the court’s intervention to lower the reservoir capacity to ensure that downstream state wasn’t washed away in case of a dam collapse.