An Enquiry into the Historical Contribution of Pennycuick for the Irrigation Development in the Madras Presidency, India

Abstract

Tamil Nadu's driest regions lying in the present districts of Ramanathapuram, Tuticorin, Theni and parts of Virudhunagar were one of the worst hit in the series of famines that occured in India around the 1700"²s. At first, Muthuirullapapillai, Minister of Sethupathi King of Ramanathapuram took the  initiative for diverting Periyar River into Vaigai river in 1798. The idea of diverting the Periyar water towards east to Madurai was given a shape in 1808. J.Pennycuick  suggested  that the proposed dam should be masonry of 155 ft high which was agreed  by R. Smith. Colonel Pennycuick became incharge of dam construction and he decided to divert the west-flowing Periyar (river)'s culmination in the Arabian Sea towards the East so that it could irrigate lakhs of acres of dry land depending only on Vaigai river. The project as estimated by Pennycuick was Rs.50,00,000. Finally, an agreement or a lease deed in the name of Secretary of State for India  and the Maharaja of Travancore was executed on October 29, 1886 to construct a dam over the Mullaperiyar to deflect its waters to the  Madurai district for irrigation and leased out for this purpose 8000 acres of forest land to the government of Madras for a period of 999 years and if necessary, for another 999 years. The agreement on behalf of the Maharaja was signed by his Dewan V. Ramiengar. Formal sanction to the Periyar dam was received in the latter half of 1887 and the preliminary works were commenced in the month of September 1887 with a small establishment. Lord Connemera, the then Governor of Madras formally inaugurated. When the Primary construction work was executed, the dam was washed away by flood water. The British Government gave up the dam construction project due to heavy financial loss. But Penny Cuick did not get disheartened. He went to London and sold his properties. He came back to India to resume the dam construction work with his personal money. With his efforts dam construction was completed in 1895. After the construction of the dam was over, People in the Vaigai basin prospered as their agriculture got boomed.