SC plays down fears about Mullaperiyar dam, says it has withstood for years

Supreme Court dismisses immediate danger to Mullaperiyar dam, citing longstanding concerns raised by petitioners about safety.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (January 28, 2025) downplayed any alarm about the strength of the 130-year-old limestone-and surkhi-made Mullaperiyar dam, saying the structure has remained stoic for more than twice its life term.

A Bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and S.V.N. Bhatti indicated the dam’s safety was not an immediate danger as portrayed by the petitioner, Joe Joseph, but nevertheless a longstanding concern.

Both Justices Roy and Bhatti had served in the Kerala High Court. Justice Roy as its Chief Justice.

In December last year, another Bench of the court had fixed a similar petition raising safety concerns about the dam in January 2025.

That petition had urged the court to lower the permissible water level of the Dam, situated in the Cardamom Hills of the Western Ghats, from 142 ft to 120 ft to obviate the possibility of the dam breaching. It had also referred to the landslides of July 2024 in Wayanad, which claimed 220 lives, making it one of the worst natural disasters in recent times.

The petitioner-advocate in that case, advocate Mathews Nedumpara, had red-flagged that if Mullaperiyar dam was breached, “lives and properties of five million people of Kerala would be at grave risk”.