lit a candle 7h agoNever heard of him before this week, read it after a trip to Kerala where everyone had an opinion on that dam. Thirty years on one issue is more focus than most people manage in a lifetime, I'll give him that.
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K.M. Abbas, known throughout Tamil Nadu as Cumbum Abbas, was a farmers' leader from Cumbum in Theni district who spent more than thirty years campaigning for Tamil Nadu's rights over the water of the Mullaperiyar dam. He died at his home in Cumbum on 26 October 2026, aged 94. The…
K.M. Abbas, known throughout Tamil Nadu as Cumbum Abbas, was a farmers' leader from Cumbum in Theni district who spent more than thirty years campaigning for Tamil Nadu's rights over the water of the Mullaperiyar dam. He died at his home in Cumbum on 26 October 2026, aged 94.
The Mullaperiyar dam, built across the Periyar river in Kerala in the 1890s under the British engineer Colonel John Pennycuick, carries water east into the Cumbum Valley and on to the southern districts of Tamil Nadu, where it irrigates farmland and supplies drinking water. Its storage level has been the subject of a long dispute between Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and Abbas made that dispute the cause of his life.
He served as president of the Cumbum Valley Farmers' Association and became the founding president of the Five Southern Districts Farmers' Association, which brought together farmers in the districts that depend on Mullaperiyar water. He led many demonstrations to draw government attention to their case and, according to Dinamalar, was the first person to file a case on the Mullaperiyar dam rights before the Supreme Court of India. He later took part in a large rally at Cumbum and Gudalur, held in pouring rain, demanding implementation of the 2006 Supreme Court judgment that allowed the water level to be raised to 142 feet.
Abbas was also a writer. He wrote books on the Mullaperiyar dam, on the struggles over Tamil Nadu's rights to it, and on Colonel Pennycuick, whose memory is honoured by farmers in the valley. He was among the first to meet and talk with Pennycuick's descendants. In Cumbum he led the jamaat committee of the Vaver mosque and was credited with several local developments.
He had been in poor health for some years and died on the morning of Monday 26 October 2026. His wife, Roja, had died before him; he was survived by two sons and a daughter. MDMK general secretary Vaiko paid his last respects in person, recalling that whenever there was any development on the Mullaperiyar dam, Abbas would tell him first. PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss, Tamilaga Vazhvurimai Katchi leader Velmurugan and Cumbum MLA Jaganath Misra were among those who paid tribute, and he was buried on 27 October at the Vaver mosque in Cumbum.
Biography adapted from The Hindu, Dinamalar, Hindu Tamil Thisai and Indian Express Tamil.
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1K.M. Abbas
by People Forever
