Cauvery water Issue explained

There has been widespread controversy over the water sharing agreement of Cauvery River between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for more than a century. To begin, let us look at the importance of Cauvery River. Cauvery River originates in Kodagu, Karnataka and flows 800 km in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and reaches the Bay of Bengal. The Cauvery basin covers about 81155 sq. km area. Out of this 43,856 sq. km is in Tamil Nadu, 34,273 sq. km in Karnataka, 2866 sq. km in Kerala and 160 sq. km in Puducherry. Many districts of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu depend on Cauvery River for most of their water needs.

 

ORIGIN AND BACKGROUND OF THE ISSUE

During the British era, two agreements were signed between Princely State Mysore and Madras Presidency. One in 1892 and other in 1924. The agreement of 1924 was to be continued for 50 years. As per these agreements, 75% of the water is to be distributed to Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, 23% to Karnataka, and the rest to Kerala. A significant feature of the agreement was that it put restrictions on the extent of area that could be safely irrigated by the two states by using the Cauvery waters.

When the agreement was coming to an end, Karnataka claimed the agreement is no longer binding as they believed it was more skewed towards Tamil Nadu.

Tamil Nadu wanted to maintain the status quo mainly because Tamil Nadu’s irrigated lands had grown from an area of 1,440,000 acres to 2,580,000 acres while Karnataka’s irrigated area stood at 680,000 acres. This meant that, Tamil Nadu needed the larger share of the water to continue, to be able to sustain its existing agricultural activity. Karnataka’s stand on this matter however, is that this pattern came into existence because of the unfavorable British agreement in the first place.

The dispute between the states continued. In 1971 the Government of India took up the matter with the Supreme Court requesting for the appointment of a Tribunal to decide the sharing arrangement of the waters of Kaveri. Nothing happened.

 

SETTING UP OF TRIBUNAL AND INTERIM AWARD

In 1986, a farmer’s association from Kaveri Delta moved to the Supreme Court demanding the constitution of a tribunal for adjudication of the Cauvery water dispute. After a series of hearings – wherein the Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu governments presented their views – a tribunal consisting of three judges of High Courts was formed in 1990. The Tribunal gave an interim award on 25 June 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 and the extreme years (of drought and floods) were ignored from this calculation. The average worked out to 205 TMC which Karnataka had to ensure reached Tamil Nadu in a year.  Karnataka should not extend its irrigated area beyond 11.2 lakh acres.

 

REACTION TOWARDS THE INTERIM ORDER

Following the interim award, Karnataka witnessed its worst anti-Tamil riots in which dozens were killed and thousands fled the state. The Karnataka government also rejected the interim award and issued an ordinance seeking to annul the Tribunal’s award. However, the Supreme Court struck down the ordinance issued by Karnataka and upheld the Tribunal’s award.

The interim order was breached many times. During the years of sufficient rains, Karnataka followed the interim orders. However, during the times of poor monsoon, it was difficult for Karnataka to obey the orders as the state itself did not have adequate water for their own use.

A report in The Hindu says that between 1991 and 2011 — in 20 years, Tamil Nadu released less water on 13 occasions.

 

FINAL TRIBUNAL VERDICT

After 16 years, the three-member Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal delivered its 1000 page final award on February 5, 2007. While considering that the total availability of water in the Cauvery basin  spread across the 4 states, is 740 TMC in a “normal year”, the Tribunal has allocated the water as follows: Tamil Nadu: 419 TMC (which had demanded 512 TMC), Karnataka: 270 TMC (which had demanded 465 TMC), Kerala: 30 TMC, and Pondicherry: 7 TMC.

However, the tribunal failed to comprehensively and authoritatively state how the water was to be shared in “distress years”, when the flow in the Cauvery was deficient owing to inadequate rainfall.

Cauvery River Authority directed the Karnataka government to release 9,000 cusecs of water daily in 2012. The apex court slammed the state government as it failed to comply with the order. The Karnataka government offered an unconditional apology and started the release of the water leading to widespread violent protests.

 

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

On 22 August 2016, Tamil Nadu approached Supreme Court, seeking direction to Karnataka to release 50 TMC Cauvery water from its as mandated in the final order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal 2007. Karnataka cited distress situation as it was felt there was only enough water for drinking purposes and declined to release water.

On 5 September 2016, Supreme Court ordered Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs per day to Tamil Nadu for next 10 days.

On 9 September 2016, the state of Karnataka observed a bandh and protested against the release of water to Tamil Nadu. This decision by the Supreme Court led to unrest among the people of Karnataka as the water release limit was increased by extending the number of days.

The Court asked the Central Government to set up the Cauvery Water Management Board by October 4 so that the Board can visit the Cauvery sites to check the ground realities.

The Supreme Court on October 4 directed Karnataka to release 2,000 cusecs of Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu from October 7 to 18. The apex court had ordered the state to release 6,000 cusecs of Cauvery water per day. The hearing of the case is adjourned to October 18.

 

Written By- Abhishek Chaudhary, NMIMS Mumbai