Chennai: Recent summer rains along Western Ghats have resulted in some inflow of water into major TN reservoirs at a time when TN farmers are fighting for their riparian rights over river Cauvery.
With the summer rains catching up along western Tamil Nadu and Kerala, water managers in Tamil Nadu feel relieved. The inflow of water into major reservoirs in TN had commenced early this year preventing the drying up of major TN reservoirs, which have less than 20 per cent of the total storage, informed PWD official sources said.
Both Mettur and Bhavanisagar are receiving an inflow of 1,200 and 1,100 cusecs of water and there is an intermittent rain along the catchment areas of Sathyamangalam and Nilgiri forest area and this means there is a steady inflow of water to Mettur and Bhavanisagar for the next few days, PWD sources said.
Bhavanisagar. (file picture)
Sathyamangalam and Erode are receiving good rains and water troughs are likely to get filled up. This, in turn, will also reduce the straying of wild animals in to nearby settlement areas, said a forest ranger in Coimbatore adding that the elephants are now expected to return to the core jungle from the water catchment areas.
In a related development, the recent rains in Kerala’s Idukky district had also increased the inflow of water in to Mullaiperiyar dam by about 40 cusecs and the nearby Krishnagiri dam had also received inflow last week bringing respite to the farmers in Theni - Cumbum valley and the Krishnagiri district.
Parambikulam Tiger Reserve is also receiving rains and this will boost water storage levels required for Pollachi and Udumalpet areas, sources said adding that the overall storage capacity of TN dams is around 198 TMC and of this only 23.5 TMC of water is now available, sources added. Indian Meteorological Department has forecast the onset of southwest monsoon in Kerala on May 29.
