On September 23, Saturday, tensions mounted in Karnataka’s Mandya district after students came out in large numbers to join the ongoing protest seeking to stop the release of Cauvery River water by Karnataka authorities into Tamil Nadu. Rapid Action Force (RAF) and Karnataka State Reserve Police platoons have been deployed in the area to quell the escalating crisis.
Yesterday (September 22), protests intensified across Karnataka’s Cauvery River basin districts after the Supreme Court refused to intervene in the Cauvery Water Management Authority and Cauvery Water Regulation Committee’s orders directing the state to release 5,000 cusecs of water to neighbouring Tamil Nadu.
Farmers’ and pro-Kannada organizations demonstrated in Mysuru, Mandya, Bengaluru, and other cities, expressing their outrage and pushing the state government not to release water to Tamil Nadu, citing water constraints. The protests quickly spread to other districts like Chitradurga, Ballari, Davangere, Koppal, and Vijayapura.
Notably, on September 1, the farmers in Karnataka’s Mandya 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.
The protest erupted a 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.
Later, on September 11, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah took to X to accuse the central government of fuelling the Cauvery water dispute. He said that the central government has not given permission for the Mekedatu Project and the Tamil Nadu people are creating disputes unnecessarily.
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.