The Cauvery water-sharing dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu has intensified again after the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) directed Karnataka to release 3,500 cusecs of water per day to Tamil Nadu for 15 days. Karnataka has opposed the direction, citing deficient rainfall, weak reservoir inflows and pressure on drinking water, irrigation and livestock requirements.
Tamil Nadu has argued that it received only around 3.5 TMC of Cauvery water between June 1 and July 23, significantly below what it says was due under the existing water-sharing framework. Even after accounting for the deficient monsoon, Tamil Nadu maintains that at least another 3 TMC should have been released.
Karnataka, however, says that because of losses along the dry riverbed, it may have to release nearly twice the stipulated quantity for the required water to reach Biligundlu, the interstate measuring point.
Karnataka maintains that the current water shortage makes the CWRC direction difficult to implement. Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar has said the State intends to challenge the direction before the Cauvery Water Management Authority after consulting legal experts and officials. The issue has also triggered protests in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mandya and Ramanagara, with protesters arguing that Karnataka cannot afford the required release while facing its own water shortages.
The dispute is governed largely by the 2007 Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal award and the Supreme Court's 2018 judgment. The Tribunal had allocated 419 TMC to Tamil Nadu, 270 TMC to Karnataka, 30 TMC to Kerala and 7 TMC to Puducherry. In 2018, the Supreme Court revised the allocation, increasing Karnataka's share to 284.75 TMC and reducing Tamil Nadu's share to 404.25 TMC. Tamil Nadu was additionally permitted to extract 10 TMC of groundwater.
A central issue is how Cauvery water should be shared during a distress year when rainfall and river yield are below normal. The Tribunal's framework provides for proportionate reductions in the States' allocations when available water is insufficient. Tamil Nadu argues that Karnataka must therefore continue releasing its proportionately reduced share, while Karnataka contends that the severity of the present shortage and its essential drinking-water and agricultural requirements make the prescribed releases impracticable.
The controversy has been further intensified by Karnataka's proposed Mekedatu balancing reservoir. Tamil Nadu fears that additional upstream storage could affect downstream Cauvery releases, particularly during dry years. Karnataka says the project is primarily intended to support Bengaluru's drinking-water supply, groundwater recharge and hydropower generation and would not alter the legally fixed Cauvery allocations.
The latest dispute over the project's revised Detailed Project Report, combined with the CWRC water-release direction, has once again pushed the decades-old Cauvery conflict to the centre of politics in both States.
