Joseph Murickan

Murickan was survived by his wife, Eliyamma of Veliyanad Puthanpura Panchara. They have nine children: eight boys and one girl. Murikan died at the age of 74 at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital on December 9, 1974. He was buried at Palayam Saint Mary Church Cemetery.

Murickan suggested that paddy could be grown in the lake. The locals joked that Murickan was crazy that he could grow paddy in the lake. Regardless of that, he studied the nature of the lake with the help of experts. Realizing that there were shallow parts in the lake, he dug a ridge with mud and pumped out the water. The soil at the bottom was made usable. Thus, in 1940, for the first time, paddy was grown in the backwaters where there was no paddy. Murikkan showed his sincerity to the royal family by naming the fields created by him as Chithira (900 acres), Marthandam (652 acres) and Rani (600 acres). In 1954, farmers' struggle was waged against Muricken, the then largest landlord in Kuttanad. Following the Land Reforms Act passed by the Kerala Legislative Assembly, in 1972, when C. Achutha Menon was the Chief Minister, the Government acquired these lands from the Murikan family. In 1975, the government distributed 1600 acres of land acquired from the Murickan family to 1580 farmers.

Joseph Murickan also known as Murickan Auta or Murikkum Moottil Authaman was born in 1900, in Kavalam in present-day Alappuzha district of Kerala. His father, Thomman Luka, came to Kavalam in search of a fertile farmland from Azhikkal house in Kulasekharamangalam near Vaikom in present-day Kottayam district.