Wed Jan 15 15:23:33 UTC 2025: **Theni Villagers Celebrate Colonel Pennycuick’s Legacy with Pongal Festival**
THENI, TAMIL NADU – January 15, 2025 – Villagers in Palarpatti, Theni district, celebrated the 184th birth anniversary of Colonel John Pennycuick, the architect of the Mullaperiyar Dam, with a special Pongal festival on Wednesday. The event, known as “Pennycuick Pongal,” is a testament to the enduring respect the British engineer holds in the region.
Farmers expressed their gratitude for the bountiful harvests made possible by the dam, offering prayers and distributing Pongal, a traditional rice dish. They described Pennycuick, who identified a severe water scarcity in the region and overcame numerous obstacles to complete the dam, as a “God” and a “hero of the land.” Many villagers even named their children after him.
The celebration attracted a group of Malaysian tourists, who participated in the garland-laying ceremony at Pennycuick’s memorial and subsequently visited the Mullaperiyar Dam. Local residents provided informative booklets detailing the engineer’s contributions to the region.
Several dignitaries, including Tamil Nadu Minister for Cooperation I. Periyasamy, Theni Collector R.V. Shajeevana, Cumbum MLA N. Ramakrishnan, and Theni MP Thanga Tamil Selvan, also paid their respects by garlanding Pennycuick’s statue. The Mullaperiyar Dam, completed due to Colonel Pennycuick’s vision, continues to provide irrigation for lakhs of farmers across five southern districts and drinking water for Theni, Madurai, and parts of Dindigul.
First Piper 