Karnataka cultivates even in summer, TN faces drought without single crop
Chennai: The threat of drought looms large over Tamil Nadu’s Cauvery delta, the oldest and largest irrigation region in the country if Karnataka is adamant in its stand of not sharing water with its neighbour. The livelihood of lakhs of farmers and agricultural workers, besides the food security of the state is at stake for Tamil Nadu, which gets 50 per cent of rice from the delta area.
The delta districts depends on release of Mettur dam, since the state is located in the rain shadow region during the south west monsoon, when the rest of the country gets heavy rains. The dam will be usually opened for irrigation on June 12 every year, but it could not done so this time, three months beyond the due date, putting lakhs of farmers in distress as the kuruvai crop had been abandoned. Now, the farmers are expecting to get water for at least a single crop of samba cultivation this year. The quantity of water that reached Tamil Nadu this year is only 35 tmc as against the 100 tmc prescribed by the tribunal leading to a deficit of 64.75 tmc.
Compared to Tamil Nadu, which has not raised even a single crop, Karnataka had thrown open all its reservoirs for irrigation and drawing maximum supply in the canals. It has drawn 31 tmc of water from the four major reservoirs from June 1 to September 8, besides drawal through anicut channels, medium and minor reservoir systems and minor irrigation. Earlier, Karnataka had used 26.94 tmc for summer irrigation, which is totally unauthorised as the balance storage should be used only for the next irrigation season.
Tamil Nadu also disagrees with Karnataka’s contention of deficit rainfall of 48 per cent. As per the IMD figures, the rainfall deficit in south interior Karnataka is only eight per cent which is within the normal rainfall band.
There is a mismatch between the storage of 114 tmc in Karnataka reservoirs and the rainfall due to the artificial reduction of water due to unauthorised diversions by Karnataka through various schemes, in violation of the tribunal order. Even the Central Water Commission, during the fifth supervisory committee meeting pointed out that water is being diverted to other channels even before it reached the reservoirs. The true position would be known if the Cauvery Management Board and Cauvery Regulation Committee is constituted.
