Cauvery River Water Sharing Dispute and Mekedatu Reservoir Project

Cauvery River Water Sharing Dispute and Mekedatu Reservoir Project

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Why in News

  • The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu wrote a letter to the Prime Minister of India regarding the Mekedatu balancing reservoir project.
  • The Tamil Nadu government urged the Central Government to reject all statutory clearances for Karnataka's proposed project on the Cauvery River.

Overview of the Cauvery River

  • The Cauvery River is one of the primary east-flowing peninsular rivers in Southern India.
  • Historically known as the Ganga of the South or Ponni, it serves as a critical water source for farming, drinking, and wildlife.
  • It originates at Talakaveri on the Brahmagiri Hill range in the Kodagu district of Karnataka in the Western Ghats.
  • The river flows for about 800 kilometers across Southern India before reaching the Bay of Bengal at Poompuhar in Tamil Nadu.
  • The Cauvery basin covers an area of 87,900 square kilometers across four states and Union Territories: Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Puducherry.

Major Tributaries of the Cauvery

  • The main left-bank tributaries of the river are the Harangi, Hemavati, Shimsha, and Arkavati.
  • The main right-bank tributaries of the river are the Lakshmantirtha, Kabini, Suvarnavati, Bhavani, Noyil, and Amaravati.

Judicial Framework on Cauvery Water Sharing

  • Water allocation was first set under the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) Award (2007) based on a total yield of 740 TMC.
  • Under the 2007 CWDT Award, Tamil Nadu received 419 TMC, Karnataka received 270 TMC, Kerala received 30 TMC, Puducherry received 7 TMC, and 14 TMC was reserved for the environment.
  • In 2018, the Supreme Court modified the award and ruled that an interstate river is a shared national asset.
  • Under the 2018 Supreme Court Judgment, Karnataka's share increased to 284.75 TMC to meet Bengaluru's drinking water needs.
  • The Supreme Court set Tamil Nadu's share at 404.25 TMC after considering 10 TMC of available groundwater.
  • The allocations of 30 TMC for Kerala and 7 TMC for Puducherry remained unchanged.
  • The Supreme Court directed Karnataka to release 177.25 TMC of water every year to Tamil Nadu at the Biligundlu gauging station.

About the Mekedatu Project

  • Mekedatu means Goat's Leap in Kannada and is a proposed multipurpose balancing reservoir by Karnataka.
  • The project is situated in the Ramanagara district of Karnataka, about 100 kilometers south of Bengaluru.
  • It is located at the confluence of the Arkavati River and Cauvery River, just 4 to 5 kilometers upstream from the Tamil Nadu border.
  • The proposed reservoir will have a storage capacity between 48 TMC and 67 TMC.
  • The estimated project cost ranges from 6,000 crore to 9,000 crore rupees.
  • The project aims to supply 4.75 TMC of drinking water to the Bengaluru Metropolitan Region and generate 400 MW of hydroelectric power.
  • The project would submerge between 3,000 and 4,900 hectares of forest land in the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary.