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.
