Cauvery Row Engulfs Two Major States. Are Water Tribunals Ineffective?

Once again, a verdict on sharing Cauvery water during a distress year has fuelled regional politics, hijacked peace and made farmers vulnerable. The need of the hour is to expand cultivable area, build additional storages to tap a good monsoon and mitigate water shortages.

- Prathima Nandakumar

Did they just declare another holiday? I don’t want a special class on Saturday,” said my seven-year-old son, disturbed and amused at the same time. “Who are these people? Why are they burning buses?” he asked, watching the violence on news channels. I had the same questions. A schoolmate from Pune pinged, “Hope it’s not a repeat of 1991!”.

For me, as a schoolgirl, the Cauvery row had only meant holidays. But the violence reported in newspapers had been unsettling. The hatred for the “water snatchers” came naturally to innocent kids and immature adults, thanks in part to cunning politicians. When asked about it, the elders at home could only sigh. Little did we realise that a water dispute had pitched Kannadigas against Tamils. The political opponents of the then chief minister S. Bangarappa had alleged that the anti Tamil violence—that claimed lives, destroyed property and led to exodus of Tamils—was state-sponsored. But what every peace-loving Kannadiga knew for sure was that the opportunists had won.

On September 12, familiar visuals of arson and mob fury flashed on television screens, soon after the Supreme Court spelt out the verdict— “Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs of water to TamilNadu daily, till September 20”. Farmers in Karnataka, who had completed sowing in five lakh hectares, were distraught at the thought of having to part with more water for the samba (rice) crops in TamilNadu. Buses were torched, stones were flung at buildings and the police, and roads were blocked. Tamils were the target. Curfews were imposed in some parts of the state and two people were killed in Bengaluru. One was shot in police firing while another jumped from a three-storey building to escape police lathi charge.