On Friday, September 1st, the farmers in Karnataka’s Mandya continued their protest seeking to stop the release of Cauvery River water by Karnataka authorities into Tamil Nadu.
Farmers demonstrated on Tuesday, one day after the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) issued an interim ruling requiring Karnataka to release 5,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu every day for the next 15 days, until September 2. The protesting farmers blindfolded themselves and staged a sit-in in front of the Cauvery Irrigation Corporation headquarters at the main gate of the KRS dam in Mandya on Tuesday.
On Thursday (August 31), the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CMWA) submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court noting that a meeting was held and that Karnataka followed the CWMA’s directives by releasing 1,49,898 cusec of water at Biligundulu from August 12 to August 26.
Previously, the Supreme Court stated that it lacked expertise on the subject and sought a report from the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) on the volume of releases made by Karnataka.
Protesting farmers sought that the release of water to Tamil Nadu be halted immediately, citing water constraints. “Farmers here don’t have water, so why should we give it to Tamil Nadu?” They claimed the state government did not “care” about the farmers here. The Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing on the Cauvery water-sharing issue between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for September 6.
On August 14, 2023, the Tamil Nadu government petitioned the Supreme Court for their intervention in mandating Karnataka to immediately release 24,000 cubic feet per second (cusecs) of water from its reservoirs.
For decades, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have been at odds over the distribution of water from the Cauvery River, which serves as a key supply of irrigation and drinking water for millions of people in the region.
On June 2, 1990, the Centre established the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) to resolve water-sharing disputes between Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, and Puducherry.