Both north and south Karnataka are in a tizzy over water. North Karnataka over the utilisation of waters of the Mahadayi River (see article on Page 24) and South Karnataka over the utilization of the Cauvery River. This is probably the result of a skewed discourse which is framed by the limited terms of water availability. It’s an I win you lose kind of discourse - water allocated to one state is the loss of another, and the water that reaches the sea is a waste. Is there a way to deal with these disputes other than the legal? Prabhu Mallikarjunan traces the history and outcome of the dispute and puts forth the farmer’s perspective.
Early last month Putnanje Gowda, 55, a marginal farmer of Ramandur village in Malavalli taluk of Mandya, was left high and dry when the south-west monsoon failed him. He was all set to cultivate a sugarcane crop in his three-fourth of an acre rain-fed land when nature played truant. His next option was water from the Krishna Raja Sagara (KRS) dam on the Cauvery.
But tragedies too come in pairs. The rainfall deficit had also hit the Cauvery catchment area. Water in the reservoirs of the Cauvery basin - KRS in Mandya district, Kabini in Mysuru, Harangi in Kodagu and Hemavathi in Hassan - was less than normal (one-fourth the normal).
Thousands of farmers like Gowda found themselves in hot waters. And the state government suddenly had the difficult task of apportioning water for agriculture irrigation and drinking water needs of Bengaluru, Mysuru and Mandya region.
Nearly 90% of Karnataka’s talukas -subdivisions of districts recorded deficit rainfall in August, and 40% of minor irrigation tanks were running dry state-wide. In August, Karnataka’s four zones– south and north interior, the Malnad region and the coastal areas– recorded a 39% deficit in rainfall.
To add to the woes, the Supreme Court of India struck right at that time. It asked the government of Karnataka to ‘live and let live” and release 15,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu for 10 days. It said the samba crops in Tamil Nadu would be adversely affected if water was not released by Karnataka.
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Esta historia es de la edición November 2016 - 1st Anniversary Special Issue de Karnataka Today.
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