Click to play videoWayalar: The Mullaperiyar dam dispute will come up for hearing in the Supreme Court on Monday.
The issue snowballed into a major controversy after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M Karunanidhi, threatened to walk out of talks with Kerala Chief Minister, V S Achuthanandan.
Karunanidhi's angry response came after Kerala refused to raise the dam's height to 142 metres and instead sent in Navy divers to examine its safety.
Road blockades were organised on the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border.
Tamil Nadu is expected to apprise the Apex court of the recent developments, especially of its concerns that Kerala was politicising the issue.
While the state governments carry on in that vein, traders on both sides dread any further disruption in business because of road blockades by political parties.
It was the dominoe effect of the Mullaperiyar stand-off between Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Over 3,000 vehicles, many of them truck carrying essential items like vegetables, milk, live-stock came to a grinding halt in Chavadi, five kms from the Walayar check post in Kerala last week.
The reason - DMK party workers in Tamil Nadu had blocked the highway in protest against Kerala's stand on the Mullaperiyar dam issue.
Though the blockade was called off after 24 hours, the damage was already done. Traders on both sides suffered severe losses
Says a Coimbatore-based farmer-cum-trader, N Ramdas, "Chillis, cauliflower, onions - you name it and it has rotted. We had to dump nearly everything."
A Palakkad-based farmer-cum-trader, S A Kamaluddin, says "Any unrest between the states will affect people on both sides equally. The governments should solve the issue quickly."
Steel, textiles, vegetables, and poultry are only some of the items that contribute to the almost Rs 100 crore trade that takes place between the two states.
While trading with neighbouring Karnataka remains an option for both the states, it only provides a short-term solution.
Even though both states disagree on the water-front, there is no denying their economic interdependence.
While Kerala depends on Tamil Nadu for milk, meat and vegetables; for the farmers in Tamil Nadu, Kerala is the closest market for its perishable commodities.
Therefore, what the people on both sides wish for the most is for the dispute to be put to its most logical conclusion as soon as possible.
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