Neyyar water sharing: From cooperation to friction between Tamil Nadu and Kerala
Post-independence, there have been several instances of one State blaming another in times of water shortage for the violation of an inter-State water-sharing compact. But
Post-independence, there have been several instances of one State blaming another in times of water shortage for the violation of an inter-State water-sharing compact. But what is less known is that Kerala provided water from its southernmost river, the Neyyar, to Tamil Nadu without any formal and written agreement for over 40 years. It was only an understanding that sustained the water supply for irrigation requirements of the Vilavancode taluk of the Kanniyakumari district, which was a part of the erstwhile Travancore-Cochin (TC) State till 1956. When the Neyyar irrigation project took off in 1951, it was a venture of the former TC State but, by the time it fructified, the project had become a joint Kerala-Madras scheme. Unfortunately, this project – at one point of time, a healthy example of inter-State accommodation – too fell prey to the politics of water in 2004, and for nearly 15 years, the two States have been waging a legal battle. It all began exactly 68 years ago with the then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Kamaraj inaugurating the Neyyar Left Bank Canal Scheme in Kaliyakkavilai village [now, a town panchayat] of the Vilavancode taluk. The event marked the official commencement of water supply for irrigation in the area. He received a message of congratulations from his Kerala counterpart, E.M.S. Namboodiripad, on the occasion. Interestingly, Kamaraj and EMS belonged to two different streams of political thought – the former being a devout Congressite and the latter, a hardcore Leftist. The project was designed to irrigate 36,000 acres, including about 9,000 acres in the Kanniyakurnari district of Madras. “Additional yield per year from the land benefited by the scheme is estimated at 20,000 tonnes of rice,” reported The Hindu on February 10, 1959, at the time of commissioning of the dam. Apart from the dam being a masonry structure, the water body has two main canals, each of which is with a head discharge of 300 cubic feet per second (cusecs). Another report of this newspaper on July 29, 1958, quoted Kamaraj as having stated that the Neyyar irrigation scheme was the first among several improvement schemes for the Kanniyakumari district after its merger with the State of Tamil Nadu [at that time, known as Madras] from TC, and his government had spent about a crore of rupees.
He went on to say that “even now doubts often arose among some people of the Kanniyakumari district as to whether they were wise in joining Madras State, but it was the responsibility of the Madras Government to dispel such doubts by showing that they were now better off than they were before.” P. Kakkan, the then Public Works Minister, A. Nesamani, Member of the Legislative Assembly, R. Tirumalai, who was the first District Collector after the merger and who later authored a seminal publication on sociological history of the ancient townships of the Pandian townships, Ananda Rao, Chief Engineer (Irrigation) who was instrumental in getting many dams built in the State during the 1940s and 1950s, were all present on the occasion. Talking of the project, Rao said it covered the construction of a dam across the Neyyar River in Chempilamodu (Kerala), about 30 km east of Thiruvananthapuram city and digging of canals along the river’s north and south banks. The bonhomie between the two States was such that the Governor of Tamil Nadu, Bishnu Ram Medhi, declared open the dam in the presence of his Kerala counterpart, B. Ramakrishna Rao. Interestingly, both were former Chief Ministers, the former for the northeastern State of Assam and the latter, the Hyderabad State (1952-56). Medhi hailed the ₹ 3.2-crore Neyyar project “a symbol of inter-State co-operation” while Rao said the project was “symbolic of our hopes and aspirations of greater co-operation between neighbouring States.” It was around the same time that the two States had arrived at an understanding on the sharing of the Parambikulam and Aliyar rivers. On February 12, 1959, The Hindu, in its editorial, praised the project as one “more than that [being a symbol of inter-State co-operation]. It is another instance of the new realism and a genius for compromise and accommodation that has characterised the relations between the sister States of Kerala and Madras in utilising the waters of rivers now running waste into the sea.” Four years later, Tamil Nadu and Kerala Chief Ministers Kamaraj Sankar were at the site of the Neyyar dam’s head sluice in Inchivila, about 45 km from Thiruvananthapuram, to declare open the Kanniyakumari branch of the Left Bank Canal. At that time, Sankar made an observation which has still resonance.
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