Mullai Periyar Dam is an architectural and engineering marvel .... The year was 1876. Madras Province was in the grip of a famine. It lasted for two years, spreading across the subcontinent. More than a million people died of starvation in Madras Province alone. Overall, the famine is estimated to have killed as many as 10 million people, a tragedy that went largely unnoticed in the rest of the world. During the Madras famine, while people across the province were dying without water, a tiny south-western region was struggling with severe floods due to heavy rains that killed quite a few as...