Cauvery River Water Dispute

The sharing of waters of the river Kaveri has been the source of a serious conflict between the Indian states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
                                                                                          

 

• The genesis of this conflict, rests in two controversial agreements—one signed in 1892 and another in 1924—between the erstwhile Madras Presidency and Princely State of Mysore

• Karnataka claims that these agreements were skewed heavily in favour of the Madras Presidency, and has demanded a renegotiated settlement based on "equitable sharing of the waters".

• Tamil Nadu, on the other hand, pleads that it has already developed almost 3,000,000 acres (12,000 km2) of land and as a result has come to depend very heavily on the existing pattern of usage. Any change in this pattern, it says, will adversely affect the livelihood of millions of farmers in the state.

The 802 km Kaveri river has 32,000 sq km basin area in Karnataka and 44,000 sq km basin area in TN

	Karnataka	Tamilnadu	Kerala	Pondicherry	Total
Basin Area (in km²	34,273 (42%)	44,016 (54%)	2,866 (3.5%)	148(-)	81,155
Drought area in the basin (in km²)	21,870 (63.8%)	12,790 (29.2%)	-          -	-          - -	34,660
Contribution of state (in billion ft³ according to Ktaka	425 (53.7%)	252 (31.8%)	113 (14.3%)		790
Contribution of state (in billion ft³ according to TN)	392 (52.9%)	222 (30%)	126 (17%)		740
Quantity demanded by each state	465 (41%)	566 (50%)	100 (9%)	9.3 (1%)	1140.3
Share for each state as per TN's demand	177 (24%)	566 (76%)	5 (1%)	-          --- - -	748
Share for each state as per tribunal verdict of 2007	270 (37%)	419 (58%)	30 (4%)	7 (1%)	726

 Setting up of ''Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal'' - June 2, 1990

Decades of negotiations between the parties bore no fruit. The Government of India then constituted ''Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal'' and refer all disputes to it. A three man tribunal was thus constituted on June 2, 1990. The tribunal was headquartered at New Delhi and was to be headed by Justice Chittatosh Mookerjee.
The 4 states presented their demands to the tribunal as -

• Karnataka - claimed 465 billion ft³ (13 km³) as its share
• Kerala - wants 99.8 billion ft³ (2.83 km³) as its share
• Pondicherry - claims 9.3 billion ft³ (0.3 km³)
• TN - wants the flows to be ensured in accordance with the terms of the agreements of 1892 and 1924 (ie., 566 billion ft³ (16 km³) for Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry; 177 billion ft³ (5 km³) for Karnataka and 5 billion ft³ (0.1 km³) for Kerala).

 Interim Award of 'Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal - June 25,1991
The ''Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal''   gave an Interim Award on June 25, 1991. In coming up with this award, the tribunal calculated the average inflows into Tamil Nadu over a period of 10 years between 1980–81 and 1989–90. The extreme years were ignored for this calculation. The average worked out to 205 billion ft³ (5.8 km³) which Karnataka had to ensure reached Tamil Nadu in a water year. The award also stipulated the weekly and monthly flows to be ensured by Karnataka for each month of the water year. The tribunal further directed Karnataka not to increase its irrigated land area from the existing 1,120,000 acres (4,500 km²)

• Karnataka deemed this extremely inimical to its interests and issued an ordinance seeking to annul the tribunal’s award.

• The Supreme Court now stepped in at the President’s instance and struck down the Ordinance issued by Karnataka and upheld the tribunal’s award which was subsequently gazetted by the Govt of India on Dec 11, 1991

Setting up of Cauvey River Authority -

• In 1997, the Government proposed the setting up of a Cauvery River Authority which would be vested with far reaching powers to ensure the implementation of the Interim Order. These powers included the power to take over the control of dams in the event of the Interim Order not being honoured.

• The Government then made several modifications to the powers of the Authority and came up with a new proposal. The new proposal greatly reduced the executive powers of the Authority. The power to take over control of dams was also done away with.

• Under this new proposal, the Government set up two new bodies - Cauvery River Authority(CRA) and Cauvery Monitoring Committee(CMC).The Cauvery River Authority(CRA) would consist of the Prime Minister and the Chief Ministers of all four states(Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Kerala) and was headquartered in New Delhi.The Cauvery Monitoring Committee(CMC) on the other hand, was an expert body which consisted of engineers, technocrats and other officers who would take stock of the 'ground realities' and report to the government .

 ''Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal''Final Verdict - Feb 5,2007
 
 




After hearing arguments of all the parties involved for the next 16 years, the tribunal delivered its final verdict on Feb 5, 2007. In its verdict, the tribunal allocated 419 billion ft³ (12 km³) of water annually to Tamil Nadu and 270 billion ft³ (7.6 km³) to Karnataka; 30 billion ft³ (0.8 km³) of Kaveri river water to Kerala and 7 billion ft³ (0.2 km³) to Pondicherry.


The dispute however, appears not to have concluded, as all four states deciding to file review petitions seeking clarifications and possible renegotiation of the order.

Cauvery River Authority (CRA)Meeting - Sep 19,2012

Chief Ministers of TN  and Karnataka Ms Jayalalthaa and Jagadish Shettar attended the 7th meeting of the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) chaired by Manmohan Singh at his residence here along with Puducherry Chief Minister N. Rangasamy and Kerala Water Resources Minister P.J. Joseph, who was standing in for an indisposed Chief Minister Oomen Chandy.

Note - The CRA meeting was convened after a gap of nine years, with the last meeting held in 2003 under the chairmanship of then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

"After discussion, and based on the principle that distress needs to be shared among the basin states, the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ruled that it was appropriate that Karnataka releases 9,000 cusecs of water daily from Sep 20 to Oct 15,2012'' after the Karnataka State refused to accept TN’s demand for 2 tmcft water for 24 days or 1 tmcft for 30 days.

Jagadish Shettar, interacting with reporters soon after, said: "We told the prime minister that the state is not in a position to release the water and walked out in protest."

SC  Bench Directs Karnataka to Comply with CRA Order
The Supreme Court on Friday Sep 28,2012 expressed its displeasure over Karnataka not complying with a direction issued by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, heading the Cauvery River Authority (CRA), to release 9,000 cusecs of Cauvery water daily to Tamil Nadu from September 20 to October 15,2012.

A Bench comprising Justice D.K. Jain and Justice Madan B. Lokur told counsel V.N. Raghupathy, appearing for Karnataka: “This is an order passed by the Prime Minister. But you don’t want to comply… It is really unfortunate that nobody is prepared to listen to the Prime Minister, who is the highest executive authority. Have we reached that stage when you say to the Prime Minister, ‘you pass an order, we will not comply with it’? We are sorry for the kind of respect you have for the Prime Minister.”

The Bench directed Karnataka to comply with the CRA’s order. It issued notice to Karnataka seeking its response within a week to Tamil Nadu’s application, and a rejoinder from Tamil Nadu within a week thereafter.

Withhold water release order, Karnataka tells CRA

Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, who chaired an all-party meeting here on Saturday Sep 29,2012 to discuss the Cauvery issue, said later: “We will fax our representation to the CRA since this is an emergent matter. The next course of action will be [decided] only after the response from the CRA.  

The Karnataka government will submit a letter to the Prime Minister-led Cauvery River Authority to act swiftly on its request to withhold the September 19 order that directed the State to release 9,000 cusecs of water a day to Tamil Nadu until October 15 ,2012.

Saturday’s decision is a repeat of the exercise and comes after the Supreme Court’s observation on Friday that Karnataka abide by the CRA order.

Mr. Shettar, along with Minister for Water Resources Basavaraj Bommai, held detailed discussions with legal experts in New Delhi on Friday to finalise the State’s stand, especially since the State could face contempt action if it failed to implement the court’s directive.

Karnataka Release Water - Sunday Sep 30,2012

Karnataka has been releasing 9,000 cusecs since Sunday, in compliance with a Supreme Court directive.

Farmers begin relay hunger strike over Cauvery water release to Tamil Nadu

A farmers' body spearheading the stir against release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu began a relay hunger strike in Mandya in protest against Karnataka's action and warned that people would stop paying taxes if government did not heed their demand to stop the flow by Oct 04,2012 Thursday evening.

"We have set a deadline to the government... if the water release is not stopped by this evening, people will resort to a civil disobedience movement by not paying taxes," Cauvery Hitarakshana Samithi President G Madegowda said. 

Opposition Congress leader in the assembly Siddaramaiah commenced a padayatra from Mysore to Mandya to express solidarity with the agitating farmers.

Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar had urged farmers to maintain peace and said the state would file a review petition before the Supreme Court, praying for a review of the Cauvery River Authority directive.

 

Rallies in Bangalore over Cauvery water row

The agitation against release of Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu hit Bangalore on Friday Oct 5,2012 with religious leaders, Kanndada film actors, members of Kannada organisations and politicians taking out rallies

 

 

Several thousand activists of 'Karnataka Rakshana Vedike' (Karnataka Protection Forum) took out a march from National College grounds in south Bangalore to Freedom Park in city centre.

A number of religious leaders and a few Kannada film actors joined the march organised to demand immediate halt to release of water to Tamil Nadu in view of Karnataka facing worst drought in 40 years

Total Bandh in Karnataka - Saturday Oct 6,2012

 

Many schools, colleges and offices in Karnataka were closed today due to the 12-hour bandh called by various Kannada outfits to protest against the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) order directing the state to release water to Tamil Nadu.

PM Holds Discussions With Karnataka Leaders

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday Oct 8,2012 held consultations with Congress leaders from Karnataka on sharing the water of the Cauvery River with Tamil Nadu during which they told him about the "grim" situation in Karnataka.

External Affairs Minister SM Krishna, Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge, Minister of State for Railways KH Munniyappa along with Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal met the Prime Minister at his South Block office for an hour.

Karnataka stops release of water to Tamil Nadu

Karnataka on Monday Oct 8,2012 stopped release of Cauvery water from the Krishna Raja Sagar dam citing depleted storage, hours after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made it clear that only the Cauvery River Authority  can review its order directing the state to release 9,000 cusecs to Tamil Nadu .

"As per the direction of Irrigation Department heads, we have closed down the five crest gates through which the water is flowing to Tamil Nadu", KRS chief executive engineer Vijayakumar told

 

 CM Level Talks - Thursday Nov 29,2012

 

As the SC that had prompted the two States to hold negotiations at the level of Chief Ministers.The meeting is scheduled to take place in Bangalore between TN CM J Jayalalithaa and Karnataka CM Jagadish Shettar.

Karnataka CM Jagadish Shettar said, “Karnataka is in the grip of a serious water shortage in the Cauvery basin. While the present storage is around 37 tmcft, the drinking water requirement is 20 tmcft. Another 10 tmcft has to be released into the river (2.5 tmcft a month) between February and May for ecological reasons. We are left with only 7 tmcft for irrigation. I suggested that we reassess the situation a fortnight later and, if need be, the next round of talks could be held in Chennai.”

TN Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, who flew down to Bangalore accompanied by Minister for Public Works K.V. Ramalingam and Chief Secretary Devendranath Sarangi, apparently walked out of the meeting in under 45 minutes. “There is no point in continuing with the discussions when Karnataka says it will not release a single drop of water. We need at least 30 tmcft of water for another 15 days to save the standing crops''

The bilateral talks between the Chief Ministers of Karnataka and TN in Bangalore on Thursday Nov 29,2012, to work out a formula to share the available waters in the reservoirs across the Cauvery, as suggested by the Supreme Court, failed with both States sticking to the positions adopted before the apex court and the Cauvery River Authority.

Following the failure of talks, both the States have decided to move the Supreme Court

Note

The last time such a meeting took place was in Chennai on January 5, 1997 when M. Karunanidhi and J.H. Patel were Chief Ministers. In fact, that meeting was the fifth and final round of talks the two had since August 1996. By coincidence, at that time too, it was the Supreme Court that had prompted the two States to hold negotiations at the level of Chief Ministers. 

The bilateral talks of 1996-1997 though did not lead to any solution. The two States went back to the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, which itself had been constituted in June 1990 on the directions of the Supreme Court a month earlier. 

Direct Karnataka to release 30 tmcft , TN asks SC

Tamil Nadu on Saturday Dec 1,2012 filed a brief note in the Supreme Court, pleading for a direction to Karnataka to release 30 tmcft of water to save the samba crop. It said it had lost the ‘kuruvai’ crop due to the “recalcitrant” attitude of the Karnataka government in not releasing the required quantities of water.

Tamil Nadu filed the brief note with supporting documents as per a direction by the court on Friday

Tamil Nadu said:

“Notwithstanding the deficit rainfall, Karnataka has not suffered any distress. Karnataka has sown 12.75 lakh acres. It has already drawn more than 102 tmcft of water (up to 30th November) as against about 102 tmcft, which is the average drawal in the 4 major reservoirs up to the end of November.

“Thus, it has not suffered any reduction either in the irrigated area, or in the quantity of water. Karnataka cannot claim and seek to retain any water for the rabi crop when Tamil Nadu could not have even one crop. Moreover, right from July/August, their claim is only for the standing crops viz. khari

 

Karnataka says TN plea not maintainable

Karnataka on Tuesday Dec 4,2012 submitted to the Supreme Court that Tamil Nadu’s plea for release of at least 30 thousand million cubic feet (TMCft) of water from Cauvery river is not maintainable and the court should not adjudicate the dispute on basis of emotional appeals.

Appearing before a bench of justices D.K. Jain and Madan B. Lokur, the rival states continued to level allegations against each other with Tamil Nadu accusing Karnataka of cornering its share of water and the latter alleging that the former is making emotional appeal to the apex court to get more water.

Senior advocate Anil Diwan, appearing for Karnataka said Tamil Nadu’s plea is not maintainable as the state has not challenged the decisions of Cauvery Monitoring Committee (CMC) and Cauvery River Authority (CRA) headed by the Prime Minister.

“There is a method for settling disputes between two states and it is not being followed by Tamil Nadu. It has not challenged the decision of CRA and CMC. It has instead filed interim application in the old dispute,” he said.

Karnataka exceeding irrigation area says TN

Tamil Nadu on Tuesday Dec 4,2012 charged Karnataka with irrigating 11.685 lakh acres as against 8.47 lakh acres permitted by the Cauvery Tribunal and depleting the water in the four reservoirs of the State.

Making a submission before a Supreme Court Bench, comprising Justices D.K. Jain and Madan B. Lokur, senior counsel C.S. Vaidyanathan, appearing for Tamil Nadu, said that in 2012-13, the State had received only 23.9 per cent inflow at Billigundlu, which worked out to 73.49 tmcft out of total availability of 307.81 tmcft. The remaining 234.32 tmcft (76.1 per cent) was fully utilised by Karnataka.

 

Release 10,000 cusecs till Sunday, Supreme Court tells Karnataka

Directing Karnataka to release 10,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu from Wednesday Dec 5,2012 till Sunday December 9, 2012 the Supreme Court asked the Centre to indicate the time frame within which it would notify the final decision of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal given on February 5, 2007.

A Bench of Justices D.K. Jain and Madan B Lokur passed this order during the course of hearing on an application from Tamil Nadu for a direction to release 30 tmcft of water by December 15.

The 10,000 cusecs order would mean that Tamil Nadu may receive a total of around 4 tmcft of water by the end of Sunday.

Senior counsel Fali Nariman and Anil Divan, appearing for Karnataka, urged the court not to pass any ad hoc order and insisted that the Cauvery Monitoring Committee (CMC), being the expert body, should decide the issue.

Accordingly, the Bench directed the CMC to hold its next meeting either on Thursday Dec 6 or Friday Dec 7,2012 to decide the quantum of water required by both States for the month of December, keeping in view the standing crops. The Bench said till the CMC passed its order the direction to release 10,000 cusecs to Tamil Nadu would continue till Sunday, December 9,2012.

Tamil Nadu Package for Delta Farmers 

 

TN CM Jayalalithaa on Wednesday Dec 5,2012 announced a package of measures costing 69.88 crores to provide succour to farmers of the Cauvery delta in the State

All delta farmers would be provided with crop insurance cover - cost to TN 30 crores

If crop loss occurred, solatium of Rs. 8,962 per acre would be given under crop insurance schemes

Besides, under the State Disaster Relief Fund, compensation for paddy would go up from Rs. 4,000 per acre to Rs. 5,000. Totally, the farmers would get Rs. 13,692 per acre

A subsidy of Rs. 600 per acre would be given to meet the cost of diesel in respect of 32,000 pump set - 15 crores set apart for the purpose

 100% subsidy would be granted for procuring 180-metre-long high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipes that would prevent loss of water conveyed from main canals to agricultural lands. The subsidy would cover 6,000 units at a unit cost of Rs. 20,000 -12crores set apart for the purpose

100 % subsidy would be given to 6,000 units of low-density polythelene pipes at a cost of Rs. 2,800 per unit - 1.68 crore allocated for the purpose

300 multi-purpose boom sprayers would be given through the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and Agriculture Research Station for crops on the verge of withering - 1.20 crore allocated for the purpose

Muriate of Potash (MOP) fertilizer and pink pigmented facultative methylotrop, which could help the crop sustain the dry period of seven to 10 days, would be given - 4 crores allocated for the purpose

 

Karnataka Farmers Protest SC Order

 

Hundreds of farmers staged protests in Karnataka’s Mandya district on Wednesday Dec 5,2012 after the Supreme Court ordered the State to release water at the rate of 10,000 cusecs (cubic feet per second) to Tamil Nadu.

The Mandya Zilla Raitha Hitharakshana Samiti held a meeting to discuss the Supreme Court order. The former MP and samiti president, G. Made Gowda, and local leaders attended the meeting.

Terming the order a “death knell for farmers in the Cauvery basin,” Mr. Gowda said “the government should not release water to Tamil Nadu when farmers in the Cauvery basin in the State are losing their crops.”

The samiti and the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha have decided to intensify protests from Thursday.

“We will stage protests if the State government releases water to Tamil Nadu,” KRRS leader K.S. Puttannaiah told media persons.

 

TN vehicles stop plying to Karnataka anticipating trouble

 

Vehicles have stopped plying from Sathyamangalam near Erode to Mysore following demonstrations and hartal by some Kannada outfits in parts of Karnataka protesting the Supreme Court directive to release 10,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu.

For the second consecutive day on Thursday Dec 6,2012, more than 800 lorries, 300 vans and 200 other vehicles have been parked at Sathyamangalam, Bannari check-post and near Thimbam, police said

Karnataka release Cauvery water to TN

 

Karnataka on Dec 6,2012 Thursday night began releasing Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu from the Krishna Raja Sagar Reservoir as per a Supreme Court directive.

 

Tanjore Farmers Rally to Highlight Cauvery Issue

 

Farmers in large numbers took out a rally to highlight the Cauvery water issue here on Saturday Dec 8,2012 

Chinnasamy, president of the Thamizhaga Vivasayigal Sangam, flagged off the rally.

It began from Mary’s corner and ended on Abraham Pandithar Road where a public meeting was held.

The farmers -

demanded Karnataka release 30 tmc of water  to save the standing samba crop in delta districts as demanded by TN

claimed that that there was 80 tmc of water in Karnataka. They demanded payment of relief of Rs. 20,000 per acre to farmers who lost the samba crop

asked the Tamil Nadu Government to ensure 12 hours’ three-phase power supply for agriculture pump sets as promised till February 2013

 

 

Karnataka stops water release, moves CRA 

The Karnataka govt has stopped the release of Cauvery waters to Tamil Nadu since Dec 9,2012 Sunday evening and filed a petition before the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) to suspend the Cauvery Monitoring Committee’s directive to the State to release 12 tmcft to Tamil Nadu in Dec 2012, Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar told the Legislative Assembly on Monday Dec 10,2012