Cauvery water row: Bengaluru schools, offices open amid bandh call

While Karnataka had resisted the order on the grounds of a weak monsoon, the state had subsequently complied with the order following good inflows into the four dams on the Cauvery river at the end of July.

On August 11, CWMA further directed Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu daily for 15 days, which would amount to a total of 15 TMC. The Karnataka government stated on Wednesday that it would challenge the CWMA order in the Supreme Court this week.

Owing to the fluid situation on the Cauvery water-sharing issue, some pro-Kannada groups, such as the Praveen Shetty faction, withdrew support for the state bandh.

Transporters, hoteliers, taxi drivers and industry groups have also decided not to back the protest. Unlike in the past, the Congress government in Karnataka also did not provide tacit support for the bandh, as Tamil Nadu is governed by allies of the party.

“Any act involving violence, threats, damage to public or private property, obstruction of road traffic or essential services, or any other act of taking the law into one’s own hands will be dealt with firmly and appropriately in accordance with the law,” the Bengaluru city police said.

“Rather than causing economic hardship to ourselves and the people of Karnataka, we believe that pursuing Karnataka’s rights through effective legal, administrative and constitutional measures is a more constructive approach,” Radhakrishna Holla, president, state taxi owners association, said.

After the August 11 order to release more water to Tamil Nadu, Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar has urged the people to maintain restraint. “We are with you, we are there for you. People have given us the authority to protect the farmers. No farmer should be troubled for any reason,” Shivakumar had stated.

As per the 2018 Supreme Court verdict, Karnataka is supposed to release 123.14 TMC of water to Tamil Nadu between June and September. However, the state is behind schedule for water release in June and July this year, prompting Tamil Nadu to seek CWRC intervention.

Karnataka vs Tamil Nadu arguments

Karnataka had argued at the CWMA meeting on August 11 that the state’s four Cauvery reservoirs received only 77.746 TMC, about 47 per cent below the 30-year average. The state said that 86,942 cusecs were realised at Biligundlu against a CWMA-prescribed 52,500 cusecs.

“Given deficient monsoon, dwindling inflows and limited storage, Karnataka needs to conserve water for drinking, essential uses and Kharif agriculture,” the state said, while indicating that there was no scope for further release of water.

Karnataka also sought reduction of the water release per day from 12,000 cusecs to 10,000 cusecs to Tamil Nadu.

Tamil Nadu argued that maintaining one year’s drinking-water requirement for Bengaluru “as a contingency against a worst-case scenario is not justified”, to deny its legitimate share. Tamil Nadu has sought release of 37 TMC by August-end against the allotted 15 TMC.

Cauvery water sharing dispute

The dispute over Cauvery water sharing aggravates during drought years, and the last time a similar situation arose was in 2023 when Karnataka was directed to release 10,000 cusecs amid a water crisis in the state due to insufficient monsoon rainfall.

While the contentiousness of the dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the sharing of the Cauvery river water has diminished since the Supreme Court of India virtually settled the over 200-year-old water sharing dispute in 2018, the contentions now revolve around the CWMA rulings when there is poor rainfall in the catchment of the river in Karnataka.

Out of the 740 TMC of Cauvery river water to be shared every year, the Supreme Court awarded 404.25 TMC to Tamil Nadu, 284.75 TMC to Karnataka, 30 TMC to Kerala, 7 TMC to Puducherry and 14 TMC for environment protection.

The apex court also ordered the creation of the CWMA and the CWRC to adjudicate disputes that come up between the states within the framework of the final orders of the court.

The CWMA is a largely apolitical authority created under the Union Water Resources Ministry to oversee the implementation of the 2018 Supreme Court orders. It regulates the dispute between the two states.

The contention of political parties in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, however, is that the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and the Supreme Court order of 2018 have only spelt out the water-sharing norms during a normal monsoon and not distress years.

Political parties like the DMK in Tamil Nadu, the Congress and the JDS in Karnataka have in the past called for the Prime Minister’s intervention to create a dispute-redressal mechanism in distress years.

The Karnataka government has also been seeking implementation of the Mekedatu check dam project on the Cauvery river in Karnataka to facilitate drinking water storage for Bengaluru and for release of excess water to Tamil Nadu in crisis.

Violent protests before 2018

Before the Supreme Court order of 2018, protests over the Cauvery dispute had resulted in violence in Karnataka, with mainstream political parties trying to gain currency among the electorate by taking up highly chauvinistic positions.

In 1991, the dispute over the sharing of the Cauvery river water between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu erupted in violence, resulting in the death of nearly 23 people in Karnataka. The state was governed by S Bangarappa of the Congress party at the time.

In 2016, when the Congress was in power under chief minister Siddaramaiah, Bengaluru witnessed incidents of violence during protests over the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, and two people were killed in police firing.