Distress and dispute: On Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and the Cauvery

With the southwest monsoon playing truant in its first half, a familiar distress situation has developed in the Cauvery basin. The principal riparian States — Karnataka upstream and Tamil Nadu downstream — have made little progress in evolving a distress-sharing formula in the vexed dispute. Once again, heavy rain in the Cauvery catchment has come to the aid of both States. Whether this will douse the embers or fan parochial flames remains to be seen. Political tensions are rising, with pro-Kannada groups calling for a Karnataka bandh on August 13 and the DMK planning a stir in Thanjavur on August 3 , coinciding with the Aadi Perukku festival on the Cauvery’s banks. Despite a surge in inflows into four major Karnataka reservoirs in the Cauvery basin, it is too early to conclude that the water shortage affecting farmers in both States is over. The decision of the Congress government in Karnataka not to release irrigation water adds to the crisis, though such refusals over scheduled water deliveries are not new. Consequently, Billigundulu, the inter-State border measuring point, realised barely one thousand million cubic feet (tmc ft) against the stipulated 31 tmc ft in July, the wettest month.