Cauvery: Karnataka told to release 6,000 cusecs to TN from Wednesday, State mulls moving SC

The Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) on Tuesday directed Karnataka to release 6,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu for 15 days starting at 8 am on September 9, partially reducing its earlier order for a release of 9,000 cusecs.

This direction amounts to a release of about 7.8 TMC ft of water over the 15-day period. The CWRC reviewed rainfall, reservoir levels and crop conditions in the Cauvery basin before issuing the modified order.

Tamil Nadu had sought the release of 17,000 cusecs.


Karnataka Water Resources Minister N Cheluvarayaswamy expressed disappointment with the decision, saying several parts of the state were facing drought-like conditions and that inflows into reservoirs in the Cauvery basin had declined significantly over the past week.

Cheluvarayaswamy said the state presented data on rainfall, reservoir storage and inflows to argue that releasing additional water would be difficult under the prevailing conditions.

He said he would discuss the matter with Chief Minister DK Shivakumar and that the state government planned to approach the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

“There have been instances in the past of the regulators issuing similar directions without appreciating the ground realities,” the minister said.

The CWRC’s decision comes amid frequent sparring between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the sharing of Cauvery water.