Nearly 190 years ago, Sir Arthur Thomas Cotton (1803-1899), a celebrated British irrigation engineer, called the idea of building an anicut across the Cauvery “visionary.”
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At that time, he was toying with the proposal of building, what is now called the Upper Anicut at Mukkombu, about 18 km from Tiruchi, after studying the Grand Anicut or ‘Kallanai'’ in Tamil, which was said to have been built by Karikala Chola in the second century CE. In an account, he made a reference to the Grand Anicut by saying how it was done by “the natives hundreds of years ago” and “with their little science and poor means.”
Completed in 1836, the Upper Anicut remains a vital structure to regulate the flow of Cauvery water in the delta.
This description of Cotton on the Grand Anicut, drawn from a publication authored by his daughter Lady Hope, about him, forms part of a coffee-table book brought out recently by the Water Resources Department, which has been carved out of the Public Works Department.
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The publication captures measures taken by the present DMK regime in the last 100-odd days in the water sector, especially the ₹65.1-crore project of removing silt in the Cauvery delta and safeguarding the State’s interests of the Cauvery river water.
Quotes of Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan on the role of former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi in defending the State’s position on the Cauvery water issue and an account of the execution of various projects for dams, tanks, canals and other irrigation structures during different spells of the DMK regime (1967-76, 1989-91, 1996-2001 and 2006-11) figure in the publication.
Pictures of the Big Temples in Thanjavur and Gangaikonda Cholapuram of Ariyalur district besides a bird sanctuary in Vaduvoor of Thiruvarur district make the book more colourful.