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The Mullaperiyar Dam is a masonry gravity dam on the Periyar River in the Kerala state of India.^[1]

• ^[3][6] It is located 881 m (2,890 ft) above mean sea level on the Cardamom Hills of the Western Ghats in Thekkady, Idukki District of Kerala, South India.
•  It was constructed between 1887 and 1895 by the British Government to divert water eastwards to Madras Presidency area (the present-day Tamil Nadu).
•  It has a height of 53.6 m (176 ft) from the foundation and length of 365.7 m (1,200 ft).^[1]
• The Periyar National Park in Thekkady is located around the dam's reservoir. The dam is located in Kerala on the river Periyar,
•  but the dam is controlled and operated under a period lease by neighboring Tamil Nadu state.^[1] The control and safety of the dam and the validity and fairness of the lease agreement have been points of dispute between Kerala and Tamil Nadu states.^[8]
•  Supreme court judgment came in February 27 2006, allowing Tamil Nadu to raise the level of the dam to 152 feet after strengthening it.
• Responding to it, Mullaperiyar dam was declared an 'endangered' scheduled dam by the Kerala Government under the disputed Kerala Irrigation and Water Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2006.^[9] Provisions in this act bypasses supreme court judgment and it prescribes the level of water in the 22 dams,perhaps Mullaperiyar is in the top of the list.
• Earlier known as the Periyar Dam as it was basically meant to dam the Periyar river,^[10] the present name Mullaperiyar is derived from a portmanteau of Mullayar River and Periyar River, at the confluence of which the dam is located below.^[11] Official name of the project is just "periyar project". Media started calling it as mullai/mulla periyar

The Periyar river which flows westward into the Arabian sea was diverted eastwards to flow towards the Bay of Bengal to provide water to the arid rain shadow region of Madurai in Madras Presidency which was in dire need of a greater supply than the small Vaigai River could give.^[10]

The dam created the Periyar Thekkady reservoir, from which water was diverted eastwards to via a tunnel to augment the small flow of the Vaigai River. The Vaigai was dammed by the Vaigai Dam to provide a source for irrigating large tracts around Madurai. Initially the dam waters were used only for the irrigation of 68,558 ha (169,411 acres).^[12]