Cauvery water dispute verdict: Karnataka to get additional 14.75 tmc of water

The decades-old Cauvery water dispute has been finally resolved as the Supreme court on Friday ordered that the State of Karnataka will now get 270 tmcft of Cauvery water, which is 14.75 tmcft more than what was ordered by the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal (CWDT) in 2007. This means that Tamil Nadu will now get only 177.25 tmcft instead of the earlier allocated 192 tmcft water. The share of Kerala (7 tmcft) and Puducherry (30 tmcft) will remain unchanged. A three-judge bench of the Supreme court headed by CJI Dipak Misra also comprising of Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud was hearing a Special Leave Petition filed by the state of Karnataka against the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal's order of the distribution of Cauvery waters among the states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry. The bench said that the river does not belong to any particular state and hence, the stated must share waters. The bench also said that this verdict will remain in force for the next 15 years, after which the apex court will monitor the implementation. The 765-km long Cauvery river, also known as the Ganga of the south, is considered the lifeline for Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. In February 2007, the CWDT ordered that Tamil Nadu would receive 419 tmcft of water and Karnataka would have to release 192 tmcft to Tamil Nadu in 10 monthly installments every year. Before the 2007 order, Tamil Nadu had asked for 562 tmcft of water i.e. roughly three-fourth and Karnataka had asked for 465 tmcft i.e. around two-thirds of the available water. The water tribunal was set up in 1990 on the orders of the Supreme court. The state of Karnataka was unhappy with the award of the tribunal and argued that it was unfair to require the state to release a fixed amount of water to Tamil Nadu irrespective of the availability of water. Hence, an appeal was filed in the Supreme court against the tribunal's order. Later, in 2016 the Tamil Nadu government sought the Supreme court's intervention, saying that there was a deficit of 50.0052 tmcft of water released from Karnataka reservoirs, with respect to the minimum limit so directed by the CWDT. Following that in September 2016, the Supreme court directed Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu every day for the following 10 days. As a result, intense and violent protests were witnessed in the different parts of the State against the said verdict.