Cauvery Timeline!

The Cauvery dispute began in the year 1892, between the Madras Presidency (under the British Raj) and the Princely state of Mysore (as Karnataka was known then) when they had to come to terms with dividing the river water between the two states.

Since then, Cauvery river water has been a bone of contention between the two states.

According to the 1892 and the 1924 agreements the river water was distributed as follows: 75% with Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, 23% to Karnataka and the remaining with Kerala.

The 802 kilometres (498 mi) Cauvery river has 44,000 km2 basin area in Tamil Nadu and 32,000 km2 basin area in Karnataka. The inflow from Karnataka is 425 TMC ft whereas that from Tamil Nadu is 252 TMCft

Based on inflow Karnataka is demanding its due share of water from the river stating that the pre-independence agreements are invalid.

Through the 1960s, Tamil Nadu strongly objected to Karnataka buildings two dams on the Cauvery river but the latter went ahead anyway.

By this time, Tamil Nadu had also built the Mettur dam. The state had become heavily dependent on the Cauvery river after they developed millions of agricultural land around the river.

In 1972, the Centre agreed to appoint a committee to study the water usage by these states. It was found that Tamil Nadu used 566 tmcft (thousand million cubic feet), Karanataka used 177 tmcft.

19 September 2012, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is also the Chairman of the Cauvery River Authority, directed Karnataka to release 9,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu

Karnataka fails to oblige stating failed monsoon.

24 September 2012, Tamil Nadu govt filed petition in Supreme Court

28 Sep 2012, the Supreme Court slammed the Karnataka government for failing to comply with the directive of the Cauvery River Authority

Left with no other option, Karnataka started releasing water which led to wide protests and violence in Karnataka.

4 October 2012, the Karnataka government filed a review petition before the Supreme Court seeking a stay on its 28 September order 

8 October 2012, the Supreme Court of India announced the release of 9,000 cusecs had to be continued by Karnataka. Karnataka stops release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.

9 October 2012, Tamil Nadu govt. files a contempt petition against the Karnataka government for flouting the verdict of the Supreme Court.

19 March 2013, Tamil Nadu moves Supreme Court to give directions to Water Ministry for constitution of Cauvery Management Board.

22 August 2016, Tamil Nadu approached Supreme Court, seeking direction to Karnataka to release 50.052 TMC ft Cauvery water 

2 September 2016, Supreme Court asked Karnataka to consider Tamil Nadu's plea on humanitarian grounds and release water and advised both states to maintain harmony. 

5 September 2016 Karnataka informed the Supreme Court that it can release 10,000 cusecs per day, while Tamil Nadu demanded 20,000 cusecs per day.

Supreme Court ordered Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs per day to Tamil Nadu for next 10 days till 16 September 2016.

9 September 2016, the state of Karnataka observed a bandh and protested against the release of water to Tamil Nadu. 

12 September 2016, Supreme Court slammed Karnataka for citing law and order problem and modified the 5 September order, directing Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs of water till 20 September 2016.

20 September 2016, Supreme Court directed Karnataka to release 6,000 cusecs of water from 21 to 27 Sep 2016 and directed the Central Government to set up the Cauvery Management Board in order to provide a permanent solution for the dispute.

23 September, Karnataka Legislative Assembly passed a resolution to not release water to Tamil Nadu, hence defying the Supreme Court's order.

27 September, the Supreme Court ordered Karnataka to give 6000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu for 3 days which was again not carried out.

30 September, the Supreme Court gave Karnataka a "last chance" and ordered 6,000 cusecs of water to be released during the first 6 days of October. The Court asked the Central Government to set up the Cauvery Water Management Board by 4 October 

1 October 2016, Karnataka filed for review petition over Supreme Court's latest order

4 October, Supreme Court directed Karnataka to release 2,000 cusecs of Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu from 7 to 18 October. 

16 February 2018, Supreme Court passed a final verdict which directed Karnataka to release only 177 tmc of water to Tamil Nadu for next 15 years. 

The verdict also mandated to formally constitute the Cauvery river management board by the union government within 40 days for implementing strictly the tribunal award and its verdict.

Karnataka does not seem to be happy with setting up Cauvery Management Board for monitoring water availability and use as part of the SC verdict. Also, the Union government is not comfortable with the SC verdict to form the Cauvery management board with in the stipulated period.

Tamil Nadu left with facing drought and opportunists using the situation for political leverage.

Unlike rivers such as Ganga, Indus and Brahmaputra, which originate from glaciers, Cauvery is a rain-fed river supported by tributaries flowing into it, according to Outlook. During heavy monsoon, the region experiences excess water flow in the river. When there is a lack of rainfall, inducing a drought-like situation, both states start fighting for whatever little water the Cauvery offers at the time. This affects agriculture and farmers' livelihood as well.