Though blessed with sufficient water for irrigation, plenteous problems plague Ambasamudram segment

The Ambasamudram Assembly constituency along the lap of the Western Ghats, which has been blessed with three prime reservoirs but left with a lot of infrastructural problems, is all set to witness a battle between the AIADMK and the Congress this time.

While winners of the very first Assembly election held in Tamil Nadu in the early 50s were all Indian National Congress candidates, Ambasamudram constituency preferred to choose Independent candidate P. Chockalingam over Congress contestant Lakshmi Sankara Iyer in the first poll held in 1952. However, ‘business’ became ‘as usual’ in the next election as Congress candidate G. Gomathisankara Dikshidar got elected to the Assembly in 1957 and he continued the wining streak till 1967 even when the DMK emerged victorious in this election and formed the government under the leadership of C. N. Annadurai.

In the next election held in 1971 too, Congress candidate S. Sangumuthu Thevar won the battle. The CPI (M) emerged victorious for the first time in 1977 as its candidate Eswaramoorthy alias Sornam got elected by defeating veteran CPI leader R. Nallakannu by 1,787 votes. He was elected to the Assembly for the second consecutive term in 1980.

The AIADMK won Ambasamudram for the first time in 1984 but lost it in the next election in 1989 to the Congress and retained it in 1991. When AIADMK supremo fell out of the voters’ favour in 1996, DMK’s R. Avudaiyappan bagged this constituency for the first time and the second time in 2006 to became Speaker of Tamil Nadu Assembly.

However, Mr. Avudaiyappan suffered unforgettable defeats in the next three elections – in 2011, 2016 and 2021 – at the hands of AIADMK candidates. And, the painful ‘hat-trick debacle’ has forced the DMK to handover the Ambasamudram constituency to the Congress for the April 23 polls. Though the national party is yet to announce its candidate with intra-party confusion over candidates reaching crescendo, advocate Kamaraj or former MLA Veldurai’s son V.P. Durai may be fielded to take-on AIADMK’s Esakki Subaya, who got elected twice from this segment in 2011 and 2021. He served as Minister of Law in the Jayalalithaa’s Cabinet in 2011 and got dismissed from the ministership within 2 months.

The Vijay-led Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam and Seeman’s Naam Thamizhar Katchi too have fielded little known candidates in the fray.

Even though this constituency, blessed with good water resources with Papanasam, Manimuthar and Servalar dams taking care of agricultural operations, has elected candidates from different political parties, the perennial problems still exist as none of these members neither understood nor worked to alleviate these problems.

Even though the ruling DMK had announced that the Tamil Nadu Government would study the possibilities of taking Papanasam dam’s surplus water to Manimuthar dam, the district’s largest reservoir with the capacity of 5,511 mcft, by digging a linking channel, no step has been taken so far. Since Papanasam dam would be the first major reservoir to overflow owing to good rainfall in the catchment areas in the Western Ghats almost every year, the surplus water would be released in the 122-Km-long Tamirabharani River, which would get drained into the Gulf of Mannar near Punnaikaayal in Thoothukudi district.

This agonizing wastage of ‘White Gold’ continues even after the 73 Km-long flood carrier channel was dug to connect Tamirabharani – Karumaeniyar – Nambiyar Rivers to take the surplus flood water of the Tamirabharani to dry Nanguneri, Thisaiyanvilai and Sattankulam areas. Even as the flood water is wasted, the Manimuthar Dam would be waiting anxiously every year to reach its maximum level of 118 feet as rainfall in the catchment areas of this dam is relatively not that good.

Hence, the digging of channel to connect Papanasam and Manimuthar dams was proposed even though the Tamil Nadu Government would have to obtain permission from the National Tiger Conservation Authority since both the dams and the path for the proposed linking channel are located inside Kalakkad – Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve. But, the government is silent on this vital issue which has upset the farmers.

Another nagging issue the farmers here face every year is the inadequate paddy storage facility as the paddy being harvested in the fields from Papanasam to Gopalasamudram have to be stored before and after being sold at the direct procurement centre.

Even after Chief Minister M. K. Stalin announced in September 2022 that Biodiversity Park with adventure sports would be created on 23 acres near Manimuthar dam at the cost of ₹7 crore, not even a brick has been kept to mark the start of this project. Instead, it was hijacked to neighbouring Kanniyakumari district following politics by the top-brass of Department of Forest.

Invasion of wild animals into the ranches is a major problem being encountered by the farmers of Ambasamudram. “Even though we demand erection of solar electric fence along the forest boundary, the government is in no mood to sanction fund for this project,” says P. Perumbadaiyar, state vice-president of Tamil Nadu Vivasaayigal Sangam.

Even though the Manjola tea estate workers of this constituency have been asked to vacate their decades-old scenic birthplace after the tea factory management wound-up its operations, a small number of families are still living there as they do not want come to the plains after accepting the government’s relief package, which has become a problem for the locals and the official machinery.

Even though tonnes of used clothes are being discarded in the Tamirabharani at Papanasam every week as the devotees follow this ritual for decades, no measure has been put in place to check this serious pollution of the river. And, no sustained measure is being followed to desilt the irrigation channels in Ambasamudram at regular intervals.

Published – April 02, 2026 09:15 pm IST