Karnataka heading for water crisis

By failing to protect forests in the Cauvery catchment area, it is laying the foundations for a permanent shortage which will prevent it from complying with the tribunal water sharing award.

Karnataka is yet to protect the sources and catchment areas of the Cauvery river by bringing them under a single wildlife sanctuary. But, this is needed to ensure it collects sufficient water in its dams to be able to share it with the neighbouring state Tamil Nadu as directed by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal's final verdict which came nearly a year ago in February.

The state is preparing for a protracted legal battle with Tamil Nadu over the award but is not doing what it can to ensure it at least continues to have as much water as in the past, not to speak of raising the supply. The reason ¿ opposition from a powerful timber lobby and local politicians.

Approximately, 810 sq km of virtually unprotected forests are the sources of the perennial rivulets and streams which joins the Cauvery in Kodagu district. If the government does not declare these forests (now reserve forests) as wildlife sanctuary, the flow of water into the Krishna raja Sagar (KRS) dam and Kabini reservoir and their ability to store it could fall drastically over the next 10 years, according to Karnataka government officials and irrigation experts.

These unprotected forests are contiguous to the existing Bramhagiri, Talacauvery and Pushpagiri (a combined area of 388 sq km) of wildlife sanctuaries. "Linking all the three wildlife sanctuaries into the proposed Greater Talacauvery wildlife sanctuary is vital for the Cauvery and its other sources," said a senior official of the Karnataka's forest department, who has worked on the project.

The preservation regime in a wildlife sanctuary is far more stringent than of a reserve forest. The act for the latter, which was passed in 1980, allows earlier settlers to continue to live there and fell timber for their livelihood. But those falling under a wildlife sanctuary lose their residential and property rights and have to be relocated.

What is more, forest protection improves greatly when separate patches of forests are made contiguous by declaring areas in between as protected forest. This also helps preserve animal habitats by protecting their seasonal migratory routes.

Virtually unfettered felling of trees is destroying the traditional channels through which water flows and eventually collects in the storage areas. Plus, there are more flash floods and far more silting in the reservoirs so that their storage capacity falls. Conversely, improving forest cover leads to more water getting collected and the reservoir remaining deep enough.

The way things are going, "The state will not be in a position to release water to Tamil Nadu its due share of water. Worse, Karnataka will also not be able to meet its own irrigation requirements in Mysore and Mandya districts. Irrigation plans for the entire South Karnataka could be upset," a senior government official told Business Standard.

Forest department officials point out that politicians are against declaring the forests as wildlife sanctuary. The area hosts 38 villages which have to be relocated. "Not only do the villages constitute a vote bank, they offer a cover and manpower for felling to timber merchants," they said.

In 2003, the then Congress government of S M Krishna was in the final stages of notifying the 810 sq km of unprotected forests as the Greater Talacauvery wildlife sanctuary.

Earlier the government commissioned a study which revealed a drastic reduction in inflow of water to the KRS Dam from Cauvery and other sources. The average inflow into the dam over the five months of the monsoon season fell to 119.65 tmc ft during the period 1996-2000 from 186.78 tmc ft in the previous five years (1991-95). During the next five years (2000-2004), the average inflow was better at 151.7 tmc ft due to better rains in the catchment area.

The gradual reduction of inflow into the KRS reservoir is attributed to logging, deforestation, land degradation and encroachment in the catchment areas.

"If we take the silt accumulation at the present rate into account, then over the next 10 years the ability of the KRS dam and Kabini reservoir to hold water will fall further," said an official. The KRS has already lost 20 per cent of its storage capacity due to silting.

"Any further delay in greater protection to the forests will be a severe blow to Karnataka¿s long term interests - probably far more serious than the tribunal award itself," he contended.

In February this year, the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) gave its final verdict in the decades-old dispute, allocating 419 tmc ft of water to Tamil Nadu out of 740 tmc ft available in the basin but the actual release by Karnataka to Tamil Nadu would be 192 TMCft annually.

Karnataka's share has been pegged at 270 tmc ft while Kerala and Puducherry have been awarded 30 tmc ft and 7 tmc ft. If Karnataka can collect and store more water it can keep for its own use all the extra water after releasing to Tamil Nadu its mandated share. Hence, there is an incentive to generate more water by preserving forests better. The opposite is happening.