Page:History of the Periyár project. (IA historyofperiyar00mack).pdf/23

I.] of crop if only a sufficient supply of water, delivered at a regular moderate rate, be ensured.

“This Vaigai irrigation is situated in the Madura talak, the middle one of the three named above. In the Mélúr taluk there is but one river, and that but a small stream, at its northern extremity, under which a small extent of land receives a good and certain supply. All the rest of this taluk is dependent for irrigation on the local surface drainage, stored in small shallow tanks, the majority of them being mere ponds. Situated as all the land of this taluk is within a few miles of the watershed, there are no well-defined streams; the Allighiry hills form a dyke turning all the hill streams to the north and south round the flanks of the taluks.

"The North-East monsoon from which this taluk receives what rain it does get, is very uncertain so far south and inland, and the mountains to the west of it (the streams from which, as above shown, do not flow through this taluk) no doubt draw away from it a considerable portion of the rain cloud which may have travelled so far.

“ Under these circumstances it is not surprising that agricultural operations are seldom rewarded by a good crop. If the ryot is so fortunate as not to find the ground as hard as brick at the ploughing season, the chances are that rain necessary to bring the crop to maturity will not fall at the expected time.

“And the cultivation of wet crops is hardly a less precarious business, failure being attended with greater loss, and success attained generally at much expense of labour and money on raising water from wells and pools.

"Almost every alternate season is one of scarcity in this taluk, and, when an exceptionally dry year occurs, there is severe distress, and the population is thinned by death and emigration. In 1861-62, and again last year, it suffered severely in this way."

The records of the district make constant allusions to famine and scarcity, though information of the expenditure for this cause is not available till comparatively recent years. During the famine of 1876-77 Rs. 4,32,170 was expended on relief works and Rs. 7,92,047 on gratuitous relief in the Madura district, while in the neighbouring districts of Trichinopoly and Tinnevelly, which are partially protected by irrigation, the expenditure on relief works was Rs. 3,85,394 and Rs. 1,48,110, respectively, and on gratuitous relief Rs. 1,20,626 and Rs. 1,27,901. Moreover in a district already containing considerable irrigation works the expenditure is far more usefully employed. The loss of revenue and of life are quite beyond computation.

While such is the condition of the Madura district, on the other side of the watershed line on the western ghauts is an enormous area of