NEW DELHI: The Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) on Monday rejected Tamil Nadu’s demand to direct the Karnataka government to release 7.6 tmcft of water that is due to the state.
The committee had directed Karnataka to release Cauvery water to ensure environmental flows of the river as per the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) modified by the Supreme Court.
As per the CWDT award, Karnataka must ensure the natural environmental flows at Biligundulu on the interstate border by releasing 1,000 cusecs per day (2.5 tmcft) for the whole of February to May. For this, Karnataka doesn’t have to release water from KRS, Kabini, Harini and Hemvathy.
The four major Karnataka dams currently have around 37 tmcft of water. In the 93rd meeting of the CWRC held under its chairman Vineet Gupta, the commission told Tamil Nadu that there is no need to release any additional water for irrigation.
The commission also said northeast monsoon has reduced the demand for water in Tamil Nadu but Karnataka has been facing drought-like condition in the Cauvery basin. While Karnataka’s Cauvery basin is dependent on southwest monsoon, which witnessed a shortfall, the catchment areas in TN benefited from the northeast monsoon season, the commission said.