The Great Floodof ’99,
and the origin of the Tea Company
I wrote 6 chapters of my Memoirs in 2015, though not in
this order. Strange to say, I have been hunting for details of the Great Flood of ’99 (1099 ME in the Malayalam era; as for English Calendar, 1924). But in 2018 we in reality experienced a similar or even worse flood than it in Kerala, in the opinion of those in the elder generation who had witnessed it. We now know many things about the disaster of the bygone days too.
The Great Flood of ‘99 was a historic disastrous occasion in Kerala. The Great Disaster had been talked much about by the elder generation, and the next generation has been quoting it now and then though they have never personally experienced it. We, children, often heard about it from our Appachen and Ammachy, who themselves had witnessed it when they were young. We used to remember it in connection with its adverse impact on Appachen’s family.
Evidently, this chapter contains a survey of some records. Research shows that the Great Flood of ‘99 occurred when the River Periyar in Kerala flooded in the month of July 1924. This is known as the Flood of ‘99 as it was 1099 ME in the Malayalam Calendar – Malayalam Era or Kollavarsham. It is 825 years behind the Christian Era. The rain continued for about three weeks. There was heavy and incessant rain. Many districts of Kerala were deeply submerged in water by this flood. The areas stretching from Trichur to Ernakulam, from Idukki to Kottayam, and even Alappuzha and Kuttanad were under the water. The road to Munnar and even a huge mountain called Karinthiri Malai were washed away. As the road to Munnar was lost, a new road was necessary. It was constructed later. This is the present-day road to Munnar through Kothamangalam, Neriamangalam, and Pallivasal. The route which had been an elephant route was completed in 1931 and inaugurated by the Regent Queen Sethu Lakshmi Bai.
Most of the areas in the erstwhile Travancore and Cochin States and parts of the Malabar region were submerged under the floodwater. Those of the old generation who were kids then believe that the cause of this great flood was a major breach of the Mullaperiyar Dam. This, they believe, is why the flood was so devastating, playing havoc in all these districts, inundating Munnar to its full with, and a mountain as big as Karinthiri being torn apart. The road route was damaged as a result of the catastrophic landslides at Karinthiri near Munnar.
The Flood had a dreadful toll on thousands of lives, animals and birds, and damaged crops and property in Kerala. In Munnar around 485 cm of rainfall was reported during the flood and destruction in the place was widespread. That told the death knell to the Kundala Valley Railway, the narrow-gauge railway line at Munnar. It is surprising how a region like Munnar which is about 6000 feet above sea level was submerged under the floodwater.
Do you know how the Flood ’99 becomes relevant to our family? This is what I heard from the family circle. My grandfather, Vallyappachen, Appachen’s father had been running a provision store when the flood came. He was a kind-hearted person –my father inherited this quality from him—and the local people came for provisions; he gave them everything till all the items were exhausted. When everything was over, he had no money to run the business again. Nobody paid the money for the goods they had bought. He fell into debt and thus his shop was closed.Appachen must have been fourteen years at that time. Years later he was to clear away all the debts of the family.
At the age of twenty, my father got employed in the Kannan Devan Tea Plantations. He had done his Std. X in C.M.S. High School which functioned in the later-to-be-the present college premises. It is said that Std. X of those days is equivalent to a modern postgraduate course. Such were the expansive subjects they studied at that time.
Appachen was hardworking and honest. The English Managers loved him. He had respect for them, as they knew the work and they were humane. They were honest, straightforward, and kind. Appachen was not a hard taskmaster. He earned the love and respect of the labourers through his kindness and concern for them. They adored him.
The Flood ’99 had its havoc done in Munnar as well. That’s one connection that I found between Veloor and Munnar. The former is a lowland and the latter a highland, but both places were dangerously affected by this flood. I have heard my Appachen and Ammachy talking about the dreadful impact of the flood. My Appachen’s job in the Kannan Devan Hills; yes, that formed the major link between the two places dear not only to me but to my siblings.
The cyclone and the resultant floods in the month of July 1924 changed the whole scenario of the High Ranges. The only extant account was given by Mrs. Martin who had seen the High Ranges developing from a deserted jungle into a flourishing plantation, and also who had seen its unexpected peril in the havoc.
June opened with its usual fairly good rainfall. Planting was in full swing. July also started mildly, despite the abundance of rain. The rain started falling incessantly for nearly two initial weeks of July. By the middle of July, the situation started getting worse with heavier downpours and landslips. Cart roads were sunk and bridges were washed away in Devikulam, Nettikkudi, and Guderville. What started with excitement on hearing the early reports changed to panic later. This was the case with every estate except Gundumalai which was least affected. The coolie-lines were damaged, and many lives were lost. Even the bungalows were affected badly. The evacuation was done everywhere in large measure. General Hospital was moved to Nullatanni Estate and the Headquarters Office was moved from Mattupetty to Munnar. The Kundally Valley Light Railway was extensively damaged and the Munnar-Mattupetty section had to be discontinued.
The total rainfall for July was 171.20; the year’s total was only 225 inches against 352.89 in 1924. All places as far as Periakanal, had some strange landmarks to mark this terrible cyclone and the ensuing floods.
Let’s look at the origin of the Tea Company. From the year 1925 onwards, the High Ranges had a new face. This was the time when it was realized that coffee and cinchona, which were the original plantation, were non-profitable and the High Ranges should opt for tea. Thus, the Kannan Devan Hills Produce Company became solely a tea-producing Company.
The Company took its name after Kannan Thevan who was the chieftain of the five villages forming ‘Anjunaad’ or Hamilton’s ‘Unjanaad’. The inhabitants of those unexplored regions had simple, but deep faith in their deities, either their ‘Devi’ or ‘Devan’. Kannan and Devan were also supposed to be two persons belonging to the ‘Muthuvan’ community, the tribals, who showed the Europeans the place initially.
The first European to set foot on the Kannan Devan Hills was the Duke of Wellington. General Meadows had sent Colonel Arthur Wellesley with a force. That was in 1790. The visit was part of the strategy to annihilate Tipu Sultan waiting for him at the Kumali gap and to discover suitable spots for the troops to camp. In 1862, as the news reached Tipu, Wellesley was called back. He had found a hill which later came to be known as ‘Devamallay’ an ideal location for a fort and had started on the venture. But he had to give it up as he was called back.
Lieutenant Ward and Connor of Madras Army came in 1817. They conducted the Great Trigonometrical Survey. The first records of the region were by Lt.B.S. Ward. General Douglas Hamilton was sent to these hills for the purpose in 1862. He was captivated by the beauty of the virgin land and prepared a report on that. In 1887, a commission of two representatives was appointed to determine the unsettled boundary between Travancore, and the Madras Presidency confirmed the Kannan Devan Hills tract as the Travancore territory. John Daniel Munroe of Peermade was an Officer of the Independent Kingdom of Travancore and the designated Superintendent of the Cardamom Hills. In reality, it was his interest in Shikar which led him into these remote mountain regions. It was virtually uninhabited and unapproachable wilderness. The tract was owned by the Poonjar Chiefs, Rajas of Travancore. The regions remained wild and virgin.
“Much of this is worthless land, but there is a good deal fit for cultivation,” Munroe stated. Munroe met the Poonjar Raja and obtained the first and the second Pooniat Concessions in 1878 and 1879 respectively thus acquiring 227 square miles. That was the beginning of a pioneering era of plantation in South India which later had a nationwide impact. Meanwhile in 1878, H.Gribble Turner and A.W.Turner came looking for prospects in the region. Together with Munroe, they formed a Society. The Turners started cinchona cultivation in Devimallay.
Routes were scarce and the jungle was dense. Leeches were a threat to reckon with. The Turners met the headman Suppan Chetty and entered an agreement on the exchange of rice for cinchona bark. The business flourished and Suppan Chetty’s descendants continue the business to the present day.
The first land was sold to Baron Otto von Rosenburg and his sister. Later the planting was done by Baron John von Rosenburg. Then it was the turn of A.H.Sharp who for the first time tried with tea at the estate ‘Parvathi’. From 1881 onwards E.J.Fowler, C.O.Mater, C.W.W.Martin, G.W. Clarige, Kindersley, C.Donovan, and H.M.Knight, did it in Anaimudi, Sothuparai, Chittuvuarra, Harehatch(Yellapatti), Guderale, Munnar, and Surianelle respectively. Those pioneers were great—in the sense—men of character. They had chosen the life of isolation and hardship, and it was amply rewarded in the end. The planters had some kind of entertainment and companionship once they formed Kannan Devan Planters’ Association in 1888. The first Post Office was launched in Devikulam in 1892. Slowly and steadily plantation and plantation life were progressing. Kannan Devan Hills turned to be a Garden of Eden irresistibly charming and incredible.
Appachen was appointed as a ‘Writer’ in Gundumallai. A few other names for the designation were Superintendent, Estate Conductor, etc. Later he was transferred to Silent Valley, my favourite spot of all time. I was not born when he was in Gundumallai. His Managers loved him; so did the Tamilian labourers. He had great respect for the European Managers, as I have mentioned earlier.
I remember having read about an incident that occurred to Donovan Sahib, one of the pioneers, in the long past. He had pitched his tents near what is at present is the K.D.H.Club in Munnar. Trenches were dug around the tent to keep off the elephants. One night he awoke to find a young tusker on his side of the trench. The elephant itself got frightened and it trampled everything down. Donovan Sahib and his Indian servant had a narrow escape by jumping over the trench, but the servant’s fright was so intense that he had to be taken to a lunatic asylum in Madras.
I had two big ‘fears’ –nightmares — in my childhood days in Munnar— of the elephant and ‘Malaikallan Thankkayya’ (Thankkayya, the robber of the High Ranges). Many a time I woke up in the middle of the night having dreamt of either the elephant or the robber. Later when I grew up I came to know that Thankkayya was a ‘Robin Hood’ of the High Ranges or rather the ‘Kayamkulam Kochunni’ of our region. It was said that he robbed the rich of their possessions and helped the poor with them. As a little girl, I was scared and I refused to lie at the glass window side on my cot I shared with my elder sister Omanachechy. As for the elephant, an equal or greater fear possessed me, especially when we got news towards nightfall that a lone tusker had been seen coming out of the forest. I insisted on lying on the open side of the cot, and that night I fell down on the floor in the middle of the night like a bundle of blankets.
Newspapers glared with the reports of Thankkayya’s arrest. I was greatly relieved. At least one fear had been crushed. He was imprisoned. Later when I grew up, I felt sad for him. He might have languished in the prison cell and died in the gallows. There might have been something good in him.
Despite my fear of the elephants that come out of the forests to destroy the crops and kill people, I had a special love for them. In my school days, wherever I found toy elephants made of wood, I used to buy them. Elephants are fascinating. One of our Puthenangady neighbour families had an elephant. Occasionally when it came by the road, we gave it plantains. We were afraid to go near it and give it the plantain. But the mahout would help us. Later I remember, Ammachy had a bangle with an elephant’s tail made for me, because it was known to be a talisman to drive away our fears. Now I know, it’s only a superstition.
Ammachy had told us a story of an elephant and a poor Tamilian. The elephant suddenly appeared before the poor man. It raised its trunk and as it was about to stamp on the man, he folded his hands respectfully and fearfully. He cried “Samyyyyy, Kappathunkoooo”(Lord, Save me) and he lay prostrate before the elephant. Even to this day, people repeat the story that the elephant spared him and did him no harm. He simply retraced his steps. Also, it is often said that the elephant easily relents when we show him respect.
Even now I like elephants. I feel sorry for the suffering they go through as I gather from the cruel stories of the elephants being the poor victims of torture and ill-treatment in the attempts of taming them.
The High Ranges stand tall and majestic; at times sad and quiet in loneliness; enshrouding the secret fables of the bygone years. It’s so touching and heroic to think of the pioneers—both the Masters and the workers—who sacrificed their lives in the process of shaping the hilly regions for cultivation.
Where is the enthusiastic Turner who asked his friends to send him numbers of postcards to get a sufficient amount of stamping registration in the Post Office so that the authorities would know the relevance of a post office and keep it open?
Where is Suppan Chetty who struck the first deal with the European for cinchona in exchange for a supply of rice? Where are Mrs. Knight who died of cholera, and A.F.Martin’s son who was killed in a fall from a pony? Didn’t they long to go back to their motherland, and wander in their old familiar streets?
The High Range sky has cast a gloom in my heart in their memory. The glory has departed from the High Ranges—this was the common feeling we siblings shared among us!
Cf: Baig, Amita and Willan Hendersan,
A Centenary of Planting in the Kanan Devan Hills Concession 1878-1978
TATA- Finlay Limited, 1978.
Most of the areas in the erstwhile Travancore and Cochin States and parts of the Malabar region were submerged under the floodwater. Those of the old generation who were kids then believe that the cause of this great flood was a major breach of the Mullaperiyar Dam. This, they believe, is why the flood was so devastating, playing havoc in all these districts, inundating Munnar to its full with, and a mountain as big as Karinthiri being torn apart. The road route was damaged as a result of the catastrophic landslides at Karinthiri near Munnar.
The Flood had a dreadful toll on thousands of lives, animals and birds, and damaged crops and property in Kerala. In Munnar around 485 cm of rainfall was reported during the flood and destruction in the place was widespread. That told the death knell to the Kundala Valley Railway, the narrow-gauge railway line at Munnar. It is surprising how a region like Munnar which is about 6000 feet above sea level was submerged under the floodwater.
Do you know how the Flood ’99 becomes relevant to our family? This is what I heard from the family circle. My grandfather, Vallyappachen, Appachen’s father had been running a provision store when the flood came. He was a kind-hearted person –my father inherited this quality from him—and the local people came for provisions; he gave them everything till all the items were exhausted. When everything was over, he had no money to run the business again. Nobody paid the money for the goods they had bought. He fell into debt and thus his shop was closed.Appachen must have been fourteen years at that time. Years later he was to clear away all the debts of the family.
At the age of twenty, my father got employed in the Kannan Devan Tea Plantations. He had done his Std. X in C.M.S. High School which functioned in the later-to-be-the present college premises. It is said that Std. X of those days is equivalent to a modern postgraduate course. Such were the expansive subjects they studied at that time.
Appachen was hardworking and honest. The English Managers loved him. He had respect for them, as they knew the work and they were humane. They were honest, straightforward, and kind. Appachen was not a hard taskmaster. He earned the love and respect of the labourers through his kindness and concern for them. They adored him.
The Flood ’99 had its havoc done in Munnar as well. That’s one connection that I found between Veloor and Munnar. The former is a lowland and the latter a highland, but both places were dangerously affected by this flood. I have heard my Appachen and Ammachy talking about the dreadful impact of the flood. My Appachen’s job in the Kannan Devan Hills; yes, that formed the major link between the two places dear not only to me but to my siblings.
The cyclone and the resultant floods in the month of July 1924 changed the whole scenario of the High Ranges. The only extant account was given by Mrs. Martin who had seen the High Ranges developing from a deserted jungle into a flourishing plantation, and also who had seen its unexpected peril in the havoc.
June opened with its usual fairly good rainfall. Planting was in full swing. July also started mildly, despite the abundance of rain. The rain started falling incessantly for nearly two initial weeks of July. By the middle of July, the situation started getting worse with heavier downpours and landslips. Cart roads were sunk and bridges were washed away in Devikulam, Nettikkudi, and Guderville. What started with excitement on hearing the early reports changed to panic later. This was the case with every estate except Gundumalai which was least affected. The coolie-lines were damaged, and many lives were lost. Even the bungalows were affected badly. The evacuation was done everywhere in large measure. General Hospital was moved to Nullatanni Estate and the Headquarters Office was moved from Mattupetty to Munnar. The Kundally Valley Light Railway was extensively damaged and the Munnar-Mattupetty section had to be discontinued.
The total rainfall for July was 171.20; the year’s total was only 225 inches against 352.89 in 1924. All places as far as Periakanal, had some strange landmarks to mark this terrible cyclone and the ensuing floods.
Let’s look at the origin of the Tea Company. From the year 1925 onwards, the High Ranges had a new face. This was the time when it was realized that coffee and cinchona, which were the original plantation, were non-profitable and the High Ranges should opt for tea. Thus, the Kannan Devan Hills Produce Company became solely a tea-producing Company.
The Company took its name after Kannan Thevan who was the chieftain of the five villages forming ‘Anjunaad’ or Hamilton’s ‘Unjanaad’. The inhabitants of those unexplored regions had simple, but deep faith in their deities, either their ‘Devi’ or ‘Devan’. Kannan and Devan were also supposed to be two persons belonging to the ‘Muthuvan’ community, the tribals, who showed the Europeans the place initially.
The first European to set foot on the Kannan Devan Hills was the Duke of Wellington. General Meadows had sent Colonel Arthur Wellesley with a force. That was in 1790. The visit was part of the strategy to annihilate Tipu Sultan waiting for him at the Kumali gap and to discover suitable spots for the troops to camp. In 1862, as the news reached Tipu, Wellesley was called back. He had found a hill which later came to be known as ‘Devamallay’ an ideal location for a fort and had started on the venture. But he had to give it up as he was called back.
Lieutenant Ward and Connor of Madras Army came in 1817. They conducted the Great Trigonometrical Survey. The first records of the region were by Lt.B.S. Ward. General Douglas Hamilton was sent to these hills for the purpose in 1862. He was captivated by the beauty of the virgin land and prepared a report on that. In 1887, a commission of two representatives was appointed to determine the unsettled boundary between Travancore, and the Madras Presidency confirmed the Kannan Devan Hills tract as the Travancore territory. John Daniel Munroe of Peermade was an Officer of the Independent Kingdom of Travancore and the designated Superintendent of the Cardamom Hills. In reality, it was his interest in Shikar which led him into these remote mountain regions. It was virtually uninhabited and unapproachable wilderness. The tract was owned by the Poonjar Chiefs, Rajas of Travancore. The regions remained wild and virgin.
“Much of this is worthless land, but there is a good deal fit for cultivation,” Munroe stated. Munroe met the Poonjar Raja and obtained the first and the second Pooniat Concessions in 1878 and 1879 respectively thus acquiring 227 square miles. That was the beginning of a pioneering era of plantation in South India which later had a nationwide impact. Meanwhile in 1878, H.Gribble Turner and A.W.Turner came looking for prospects in the region. Together with Munroe, they formed a Society. The Turners started cinchona cultivation in Devimallay.
Routes were scarce and the jungle was dense. Leeches were a threat to reckon with. The Turners met the headman Suppan Chetty and entered an agreement on the exchange of rice for cinchona bark. The business flourished and Suppan Chetty’s descendants continue the business to the present day.
The first land was sold to Baron Otto von Rosenburg and his sister. Later the planting was done by Baron John von Rosenburg. Then it was the turn of A.H.Sharp who for the first time tried with tea at the estate ‘Parvathi’. From 1881 onwards E.J.Fowler, C.O.Mater, C.W.W.Martin, G.W. Clarige, Kindersley, C.Donovan, and H.M.Knight, did it in Anaimudi, Sothuparai, Chittuvuarra, Harehatch(Yellapatti), Guderale, Munnar, and Surianelle respectively. Those pioneers were great—in the sense—men of character. They had chosen the life of isolation and hardship, and it was amply rewarded in the end. The planters had some kind of entertainment and companionship once they formed Kannan Devan Planters’ Association in 1888. The first Post Office was launched in Devikulam in 1892. Slowly and steadily plantation and plantation life were progressing. Kannan Devan Hills turned to be a Garden of Eden irresistibly charming and incredible.
Appachen was appointed as a ‘Writer’ in Gundumallai. A few other names for the designation were Superintendent, Estate Conductor, etc. Later he was transferred to Silent Valley, my favourite spot of all time. I was not born when he was in Gundumallai. His Managers loved him; so did the Tamilian labourers. He had great respect for the European Managers, as I have mentioned earlier.
I remember having read about an incident that occurred to Donovan Sahib, one of the pioneers, in the long past. He had pitched his tents near what is at present is the K.D.H.Club in Munnar. Trenches were dug around the tent to keep off the elephants. One night he awoke to find a young tusker on his side of the trench. The elephant itself got frightened and it trampled everything down. Donovan Sahib and his Indian servant had a narrow escape by jumping over the trench, but the servant’s fright was so intense that he had to be taken to a lunatic asylum in Madras.
I had two big ‘fears’ –nightmares — in my childhood days in Munnar— of the elephant and ‘Malaikallan Thankkayya’ (Thankkayya, the robber of the High Ranges). Many a time I woke up in the middle of the night having dreamt of either the elephant or the robber. Later when I grew up I came to know that Thankkayya was a ‘Robin Hood’ of the High Ranges or rather the ‘Kayamkulam Kochunni’ of our region. It was said that he robbed the rich of their possessions and helped the poor with them. As a little girl, I was scared and I refused to lie at the glass window side on my cot I shared with my elder sister Omanachechy. As for the elephant, an equal or greater fear possessed me, especially when we got news towards nightfall that a lone tusker had been seen coming out of the forest. I insisted on lying on the open side of the cot, and that night I fell down on the floor in the middle of the night like a bundle of blankets.
Newspapers glared with the reports of Thankkayya’s arrest. I was greatly relieved. At least one fear had been crushed. He was imprisoned. Later when I grew up, I felt sad for him. He might have languished in the prison cell and died in the gallows. There might have been something good in him.
Despite my fear of the elephants that come out of the forests to destroy the crops and kill people, I had a special love for them. In my school days, wherever I found toy elephants made of wood, I used to buy them. Elephants are fascinating. One of our Puthenangady neighbour families had an elephant. Occasionally when it came by the road, we gave it plantains. We were afraid to go near it and give it the plantain. But the mahout would help us. Later I remember, Ammachy had a bangle with an elephant’s tail made for me, because it was known to be a talisman to drive away our fears. Now I know, it’s only a superstition.
Ammachy had told us a story of an elephant and a poor Tamilian. The elephant suddenly appeared before the poor man. It raised its trunk and as it was about to stamp on the man, he folded his hands respectfully and fearfully. He cried “Samyyyyy, Kappathunkoooo”(Lord, Save me) and he lay prostrate before the elephant. Even to this day, people repeat the story that the elephant spared him and did him no harm. He simply retraced his steps. Also, it is often said that the elephant easily relents when we show him respect.
Even now I like elephants. I feel sorry for the suffering they go through as I gather from the cruel stories of the elephants being the poor victims of torture and ill-treatment in the attempts of taming them.
The High Ranges stand tall and majestic; at times sad and quiet in loneliness; enshrouding the secret fables of the bygone years. It’s so touching and heroic to think of the pioneers—both the Masters and the workers—who sacrificed their lives in the process of shaping the hilly regions for cultivation.
Where is the enthusiastic Turner who asked his friends to send him numbers of postcards to get a sufficient amount of stamping registration in the Post Office so that the authorities would know the relevance of a post office and keep it open?
Where is Suppan Chetty who struck the first deal with the European for cinchona in exchange for a supply of rice? Where are Mrs. Knight who died of cholera, and A.F.Martin’s son who was killed in a fall from a pony? Didn’t they long to go back to their motherland, and wander in their old familiar streets?
The High Range sky has cast a gloom in my heart in their memory. The glory has departed from the High Ranges—this was the common feeling we siblings shared among us!
Cf: Baig, Amita and Willan Hendersan,
A Centenary of Planting in the Kanan Devan Hills Concession 1878-1978
TATA- Finlay Limited, 1978.
