The Cauvery Tribunal

Whatz with the Cauvery issue ? Why is there a ruckus because of it ? What does it mean to the Tamilians and the Kannadigas.

The Cauvery tribunal was organized to create peace between the states that share the waters of the Cauvery namely Karnataka,TamilNadu, Kerala and Puducherry . The history of the dispute could be traced back to agreements that were formed in 1892 and 1924 which were biassed favouring the Madras Presidency ,leaving the princely state of Mysore in the lurch. Post Independence the Madras Presidency was split and Karnataka,TN formed independent states. The agreements always mandated each of these states to inform the rest incase a blockage was being constructed across the river. But from the 1930's despite the other's protests condemning the acts, dams started showing up in the name of storing water on the grounds that a lot of water was getting wasted due to evaporation which could be used during the drier days. Displeasure and discontent started burning in the hearts of the Tamilian farmers who relied on the river Cauvery because a lot of water was getting held up in Karnataka itself. Later on, during the Anna's (MGR's) era , the Tamilians strenghtened the reins and ordered for a review of the status of the river Cauvery. During the period(1924-1990) the agricultural area of Karnataka increased by more than 150% from 4.2 lack acres to 11.2 lack acres and that of TN grew from 24 to 28 lack acres. As time drew things into the 90's and as the governments were unable to acheive a consensus, a tribunal was formed which was aimed at acheiving one.

The tribunal released an interim award in 1990 which stated that Karnataka had to give 205 tmcft(thousand million cubic feet) at Mettur . During the last 16 years except the 4years of severe drought Karnataka released more than 192tmcft to Tamil Nadu.

The tribunal released yesterday forces Karnataka to release 192tmcft at the Billingudu gauging station which is upstream owing to which it loses a further 25tcmft(the volume of water between Billingudu and Mettur) . The tribunal has stuck by and large to the 1990 interim award which suggested Karnataka to release most of the water(180 tmcft) during the monsoon period ( Southwest monsoon June - September ,Northeast monsoon October - December) and a relatively lesser volume(12 tmcft) during the dry seasons( January - May) , during which many parts of the Cauvery dry up. However the critical period for the Tamilians is during the months of October to January ,during which studies claim, that better water supplies would increase the agriculutural output by a considerable proportion.

The 740tmcft of Cauvery water is shared across major states in the manner as the table suggests
State--------Verdict's share------Demanded Share
TamilNadu-----419------------------562
Karnataka-----270------------------465
Kerala--------30-------------------100
Puducherry----7--------------------30

The major argument of the Kannadigas is that the underground water table potential has been manipulated by the Tamilians to draw favour from the verdict . The United Nations Development Program released a report saying that the underground water table potential of 129 tmcft,but the reports that were submitted to the Tribunal were a meager 45tmcft.

Tamilians on the contrary won the argument by boasting the percentage share of their agricultural exports to the total agricultural exports of the country,which accordin to them should determine the share of the water. The major factor that skewed the argument their side was the large amount of land that is under cultivation in the state.

The Kannadigas are planning bundhs and rasta rokos of literally every god damn locomotive,on the other hand the Tamilians are rejoicing the result and everyone including the old man from the opposition Karunanidhi is going around saying justice has been done. There is a period of 90 days for either sides to come up with pleas and the Tribunal award shall be effective in a month's time.