No doubt the gra teful people of Tamil Nadu elevated him to the level of a Demi God. His passion, dedication and personal sacrifices, besides his humanitarian considerations for the people living there won the heart of millions of native people in that region. Set his heart and mind firmly on the project and the resultant economic gain in the future for the people in the arid and rain shadow region of present Tamil Nadu, Pennycuick, finally made up his mind to sell his wife's valuable jewelry with her consent as a last resort to tide over inadequate funds he badly needed to complete complete the project. This river-diversion project was executed in the most difficult and dangerou s terrain under the tough testing times with horrible financial constrains. J Jayalalithaa paying tributes to Colonel Pennycuick. Ībove image: C hief Minister of Tamil Nadu State and AIADMK general secretary Ms. Thanks to the generosity of the then ruler of the Princely State of Travancore who made this project a success. In the wake of successful completion of this major public works project, he helped facilitate the irrigation of 2.23 lakh acres of otherwise useless land in Theni, Dindigul, Madurai, Sivaganga and Ramanathapuram districts of Tamil Nadu. India was solely responsible for completing a challenging and important dam project - Mulliperiyar dam, never taken up before across the river Periyar and diverting the westward flow of the river towards east and joining it with the Vaigai river. John Pennycuick, Army engineer of British India during his tenure in the Madra s presidency, S. photo with saplings at Palarpatti (near Theni),Tamil NaduĬol.

Above image: People from the town of Theni paying obeisance to Colonel John Pennycuick's by way of doing aarti. 'I hold strongly to the view that the deeds and services of great men should be honored by publi c commemoration in the places where they served not only as posthumous compliments to themselves, but also an example and stimulus to others.

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