Cauvery Authority directs Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs daily for 15 days to Tamil Nadu

The Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) on Tuesday endorsed the decision of the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) directing Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs of Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu for the next 15 days, starting Wednesday. The directive, issued at a CWMA meeting in Delhi, means Karnataka must provide approximately 15.55 thousand million cubic feet (tmc ft) of water, as 11,574 cusecs over 24 hours equals one tmc ft.

Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar said the state would decide its next course of action after assessing water availability. He emphasised the need to protect the interests of Karnataka's farmers while complying with the orders of the CWMA and CWRC. He is scheduled to meet legal experts and bureaucrats on Wednesday to discuss possible legal options.

CWMA chairperson Saumitra Kumar Haldar told The Hindu that Karnataka was “in a comfortable position” to comply with the order. He said the decision was based on considerations of reservoir storage, inflows, and the meteorological outlook for the next seven days.

Earlier, Karnataka had appealed to the CWMA to defer any decision on further releases and instead take a considered view based on actual hydrological realities at the end of the southwest monsoon season. Alternatively, it pleaded for a reduction in the quantum from 12,000 cusecs to 10,000 cusecs per day.

Karnataka told the CWMA that the Cauvery basin was “reeling under severe hydrological distress.” It pointed out that all four reservoirs in the basin had received only 77.746 tmc ft of cumulative inflows in the current water year, about 47% less than the 30-year average. Inflows were also rapidly declining, it said.

The state argued that it had already ensured flows of 86,942 cusecs at Biligundlu, the measuring point on the inter-state boundary, against the prescribed quantum of 52,500 cusecs. It said Tamil Nadu's actual realisation would be much higher because additional flows were in transit. Karnataka contended that there was no scope for further release given its own deficit monsoon, dwindling inflows, and limited storage, and that there was a dire need to conserve water for drinking and essential uses, as well as for farmers' kharif crops.

Karnataka further argued that Tamil Nadu was in an advantageous position, having sufficient storage in its reservoirs and the benefit of the forthcoming northeast monsoon and downstream flows. It said distress sharing must be equitable, and that a rigid, predetermined pro-rata formula based solely on inflows into Karnataka's reservoirs could disproportionately burden the state. It demanded a broader system to assess distress based on the situation across the entire basin.

Tamil Nadu, meanwhile, appealed to the CWMA to direct Karnataka to ensure releases of 37 tmc ft at Biligundlu by August end, taking into account the backlog and the quantum due on a pro-rata basis from August 13 to 31. It argued that maintaining the entire year's drinking water requirement for Bengaluru as a contingency plan against a worst-case scenario was not justified and should not be used to deny its legitimate share.

Tamil Nadu stated that its basin area had experienced a much higher rainfall deficit of 36% so far in the water year, compared with 9% in the upstream of KRS and 19% in the Kabini region. It maintained that the present substantial downstream flow to Tamil Nadu was largely due to surplus flow from Kabini.

The Cauvery water-sharing dispute has been a long-standing issue between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, with multiple rounds of adjudication and periodic directives from supervisory bodies. The CWMA's latest order aims to balance the competing demands of both states, but the differing hydrological assessments highlight the complexity of managing a shared river basin amid changing monsoon patterns.