BENGALURU: Karnataka will approach the Supreme Court next week seeking a reduction in the quantum of Cauvery water it has been ordered to release to Tamil Nadu, Water Resources Minister N Cheluvarayaswamy said on Tuesday.
The minister said the state will comply with the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) order to release 9,000 cusecs of water while placing its case before the Supreme Court.
He said the government would take steps to ensure farmers do not face hardship. He said the current inflow was around 14,000 cusecs and water could not be held back once it flowed into the reservoirs. With good rainfall reported on Sunday and the Harangi reservoir full, the KRS reservoir may receive an inflow of 15,000 to 20,000 cusecs. Good rainfall will be the ultimate solution to the water crisis, he said.
“The Chief Minister and all of us pray every day for good rainfall,” he added.
The minister said cloud seeding is expected to begin in the next two days and will be carried out for 60 days, involving around 200 hours of flying, at an estimated cost of Rs 27 crore. He said cloud-seeding operations will be conducted daily from 8 am to 6 pm. He said dense cloud cover is expected to be more common in September and will reduce in October, making the current period the most suitable for the exercise.
The state government will also form three committees to fast-track and monitor the cloud-seeding programme aimed at tackling Karnataka’s rainfall deficit.
There will be a monitoring committee headed by Additional Chief Secretaries, a technical committee comprising experts from IIT, IISc and the Meteorological Department, and a field operations and evaluation committee. Cloud seeding will happen in four revenue divisions through the Water Resources Department, depending on the availability of suitable clouds. “Rainfall is expected within a radius of around 15 km of the cloud-seeding area,” he said.
The minister said that cloud seeding had been attempted three times earlier in the state. The success rate was around 18 per cent to 20 per cent. “If we achieve a success rate of 30 per cent, the project will be worth,” he said.
