TN says Karnataka’s little respect for CWMA orders has affected its farmers in the Cauvery Basin

The state of Tamil Nadu on Friday expressed its frustration in the Supreme Court over Karnataka’s “lack of respect” for Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) orders in the face of increasing water scarcity even as the southwest monsoon wanes, leaving behind an agricultural crisis.

Tamil Nadu, represented by senior advocate G. Umapathy and advocate B. Karunakaran, said Karnataka’s inaction and the CWMA’s failure to ensure compliance with its decisions have seriously affected the interests of farmers in its Cauvery basin, who are totally dependent on the river’s waters.

The state said in an affidavit that the stock in the Mettur reservoir was only 29.60 TMC (Thousand Million Cubic Feet) as on October 9.

He stated that after reserving water for drinking and environmental requirements and allowing for evaporation, the remaining water would be grossly insufficient to sustain irrigation for extended periods of time.

Tamil Nadu said it has urged the CWMA to direct Karnataka to clear the accumulated deficit of 14,981 TMC. The state said Karnataka needs to supply 22,519 TMC by early October, which requires a daily flow of around 1.50 TMC (17,360 cusecs) at the Biligundlu gauging station.

Instead, the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) reduced the recommended target flows from 6,000 cusecs to 4,000 cusecs per day for 15 days starting September 24. This recommendation was ratified by the CWMA.

Tamil Nadu said the allocation was drastically insufficient, while noting that irrigation of the delta alone required nearly 12,000 cusecs per day from the Mettur reservoir.

Further, to make matters worse, Tamil Nadu said that Karnataka has also failed to deliver the daily ration of 4,000 cusecs.

“The releases made by Karnataka did not follow the CWMA guidelines and did not ensure 4,000 cusecs every day. The realized flows are less by 0.987 TMC or 11,416 cusecs than directed by the CWMA. Besides, the backlog is still increasing and the failure of the CWMA to take corrective action has caused serious prejudice on the part of the Karnataka management,” the affidavit said.

Accumulation of resources

Accusing Karnataka of resource hoarding, the state said the latter maintained a combined storage of roughly 49 TMC, which was more than enough to meet its allocation obligations to the downstream state.

Tamil Nadu claimed that of the water released from the Krishna Raja Sagara (KRS) dam in Karnataka between June 1 and September 22, 2026, Karnataka used nearly 19 TMC for its own drinking water and local anicut irrigation.

She said that essentially zero water from the KRS reached Tamil Nadu, leaving the border tributaries in Biligundl almost entirely dependent on the Kabini River and transitional catchments.

Tamil Nadu further accused Karnataka of improperly diverting water from the basin through 14 irrigation schemes and pumping flows directly into about 390 local storage tanks scattered across the intervening basin.

Published – 10 Oct 2026 0:36 IST