Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah seeks PM Modi’s intervention in getting approval for stalled Kalasa-Banduri Drinking Water Project

Since the Goa Government has opposed Karnataka’s Mahadayi water project, the Karnataka Government would be inclined toward objecting to the Goa Tamnar project’s Karnataka component if the PM does not help resolve the roadblock to the Karnataka project, the Karnataka CM has said in his letter dated September 18 to the PM.

The letter by the Karnataka CM states that “in view of the objections raised by Goa to our legitimate and long pending drinking water project with minimum disruption to wildlife, and the consequent litigation we have been forced into, the State has no choice but to reconsider its decision on clearance to the Goa-Tamnar power Line.”

“Hence, I request your kind intervention to ensure that the Kalasa Project receives the necessary wildlife clearances at the earliest. Karnataka would definitely look into the issues of giving approval to Goa-Tamnar Transmission Project,” says the CM’s letter to the PM.

“I would like to reiterate that there is a need for greater inter-state cooperation and proactive hand-holding by the Central Government to resolve bilateral or multilateral issues, to achieve progress in important national projects relating to drinking water, electricity etc,” Siddaramaiah has said in his letter.

The Kalasa-Banduri Nala Diversion Project, which is crucial for fulfilling the drinking water needs of North Karnataka, “has been pending for an unusually long time for wildlife clearance from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC),” the letter says.

Although the Karnataka Government – during the tenure of the BJP – submitted a pre-feasibility report and detailed project report for clearances by the Centre, the project has been stalled for lack of wildlife clearance, the Karnataka CM has pointed out.

“However, till date the National Board for Wildlife, which you chair, has not granted the necessary clearance. The Goa Chief Wildlife warden has passed an illegal order restraining Karnataka from undertaking any activities in the Kalasa-Banduri project,” says the letter.

While the Karnataka Government has challenged the said order of the Goa Wildlife Warden, the Central Standing Committee of the NBWL, in a meeting chaired by the minister for environment, ecology and climate change on July 31, 2024, deferred the consideration of the Karnataka proposal on the grounds that the matter is in court.

“Whereas, the same standing committee in its meeting held on 23.08.2024, has recommended the Goa portion of the Goa-Tamnar Transmission Line, for Wildlife clearance,” the Karnataka CM has pointed out.

Though the Supreme Court’s Central Empowered Committee (CEC) had recommended in 2021 that the Goa Tamnar project alignments must be redrawn as they affect the Western Ghats, the power minister had assured only 13,954 trees will be cut (instead of 72,817 trees) and “in the interest of national development, Karnataka was ready to agree in principle despite the lands crossing an elephant corridor,” says Siddaramaiah’s letter.

During the final days of the BJP government in Karnataka in 2023, the then BJP chief minister Basavaraj Bommai had indicated that the NDA government at the Centre had notified the Kalasa-Banduri project and that the detailed project report (DPR) was also approved. He had indicated that the tender process for implementation of the project would begin soon.

Background

The Kalasa-Banduri drinking water project is being sought to be implemented by Karnataka following the resolution of the Mahadayi River water-sharing dispute. The Mahadayi Water Dispute Tribunal pronounced its verdict on August 14, 2018, and this was published in the Gazette of India on February 27, 2020.

Under the award, a total allocation of 13.42 TMC is made for Karnataka with 3.9 TMC of water meant to be diverted for drinking water purposes.

Goa’s chief wildlife warden issued a stop-work notice to Karnataka on January 9, 2023, over the Kalasa-Banduri project on the grounds that it affected forest regions in Goa, especially the Mahadayi Wildlife Sanctuary.

The notice issued by the chief wildlife warden, Goa, said that no water flowing into the sanctuary from Kalasa and Banduri rivulets can be diverted under Section 29 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

The Kalasa-Banduri project in Karnataka aims to divert water from River Mahadayi to meet the drinking water needs of Belagavi, Dharwad, Bagalkot, and Gadag districts of north Karnataka.

The Mahadayi issue is a political hot potato during election time for both the Congress and the BJP in Karnataka. The northern Karnataka districts of Belagavi, Dharwad, Gadag, and Bagalkot which will be beneficiaries of the Kalasa-Banduri project are known to be BJP strongholds.

Congress CM Siddaramaiah has also called for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention on the issue several times in the past. In 2016, an all-party delegation from Karnataka also met Prime Minister Modi on the issue.

The dispute over the sharing of the water of the River Mahadayi or Mandovi between the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Goa is over 30 years old if one were to consider the fact that attempts at negotiations were initiated by the Centre as far back as 1985.

The water-sharing issue reached a flashpoint in 2002 when the Karnataka Government during the tenure of chief minister S M Krishna decided to move to implement a long-pending drinking water project by building a canal across two tributaries of the Mahadayi – Kalasa and Banduri.

The Kalasa-Banduri project aimed to divert 7.56 TMC of water from the Mahadayi to the Malaprabha River to service the drinking water needs in the three parched north Karnataka districts of Belagavi, Dharwad and Gadag.

Though the NDA government cleared the project, it was opposed by the Goa BJP government led by Manohar Parrikar in 2002.

Goa approached the Centre in 2002 with a request for a Mahadayi Water Dispute tribunal to assess the “available utilisable water resources in the basin at various points and allocation of this water to the three basin states keeping in view priority of the use of water within the basin.”

The Parrikar government argued that the Kalasa-Banduri project would cause immense ecological damage in Goa since the river supports the fragile ecosystem in protected areas for wildlife and natural resources in parts of the Western Ghats located in the territory of Goa. The final clearance for the project was put on hold by the NDA government following protests by Goa.

A coalition government of the JD(S) and the BJP that came to power in Karnataka in 2006 brought the dispute to the fore again with chief minister H D Kumaraswamy deciding to start construction of the Kalasa-Banduri project at Belagavi in September 2006.

Goa approached the Supreme Court for intervention and the creation of a tribunal to settle the water-sharing issue.

With no prospects of a negotiated agreement in sight among the three states, the Manmohan Singh-led erstwhile UPA government eventually set up the Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal on November 16, 2010.

Sources said that the thinking in the Karnataka government is that drinking water requirements should get precedence in legal disputes and that since much of the water of the Mahadayi (Mandovi in Goa) eventually empties into the sea, the drinking water project should proceed.