A century-old dispute, the Cauvery water sharing issue between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu has been a volatile and violent one. Karnataka has spent crores of rupees on the heavily litigated issue involving hiring of legal luminaries and scores of lawyers. Close to people’s hearts, the earlier verdicts and the Centre’s directives have in the past resulted in people agitatiting in the Cauvery heartland whenever water was released to Tamil Nadu, especially during the drought years
1892: The first Cauvery agreement
1924: Cauvery agreement for water sharing between Madras Presidency and Princely Mysore state
1990: Supreme Court directs Centre to set up tribunal
1990: Union government headed by V P Singh sets up Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT)
June 1991: CWDT directs Karnataka to release 205 tmcft of water to Tamil Nadu; Karnataka passes ordinance to nullify the order; Supreme Court strikes down Bangarappa government’s order
December 1991: Tribunal’s interim order is gazetted; widespread riots in Bengaluru, Mysuru — anti-Tamil violence
1997: Cauvery River Authority under Prime Minister formed for implementation of interim order which Karnataka opposes; Expert Cauvery Monitoring Committee formed
September 2002:Vajpayee government directs Karnataka to release 0.8 tmcft of water to Tamil Nadu; a farmer jumps and dies in the Kabini dam; Karnataka refuses to release water following violent protests
2005 Karnataka expresses its inability to follow the interim distress sharing formula
2007: CWDT final order holds the earlier two agreements in 1892 and 1924 valid; Final order - 419 tmcft to TN, 270 tmcft to Karnataka, 30 tmcft to Kerala, and 7 tmcft to Puducherry; Karnataka state-wide bandh on tribunal order
2012: First Cauvery River Authority meeting under UPA govt; the then PM Manmohan Singh directs release of 9,000 cusecs of water to TN February 2013: Centre notifies finalaward of CWDT
July 2014: Both states seek clarification on final order September 2016: SC orders Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs of water for the next 10 days; following protests, Karnataka files for a modification of the order with apex court reducing the quantum to 12,000 cusecs; protests in Cauvery basin districts of the state for a week; the quantum of release slashed to 3,000 cusecs for the remaining days in that month
July 2017: Karnataka files petition in SC for reduction in share of TN from 192 to 132 tmcft; SC reserves its judgment on the appeals filed by three states on the final order of CWDT
2018: SC reduces TN share to 177.25 tmcft thus increasing Karnataka’s share by 14.75 tmcft
