Quiet flows Cauvery to TN

Politics or not, Cauvery water continues to flow downstream towards Tamil Nadu from Mysore district.

While two reservoirs are almost full, and the famous Krishnarajasagar (KRS) reservoir fast heading towards its maximum level, over 40,000 cusecs of water has been discharged from the Kabini over the last few days. Of the three reservoirs, Kabini was the first to fill to its brim at the start of July and water began to flow out on June 30 in a small quantity of 339 cusecs.

With heavy rains in the catchment areas, the outflow was increased to 22,034 cusecs from July 25 and since then water is being let out in increasing quanta. Except for the safety margin, the rest of the excess inflow is being released from the reservoir towards Biligondlu, on the border of Karnataka-Tamil Nadu, where both states maintain their water flow records.

The water releases from the Kabini on July 29 stood at 43,641 cusecs, a little more than the inflow of 42,118 cusecs, the heaviest so far during the season. The irrigation authorities have already sounded a flash-flood alert at downstream.

The level in the reservoir on Saturday stood at 2,280.12 feet, the maximum being 2284.00 feet. While the inflow has fallen to 31,988 cusecs, the outflow continues at a lower quantum of 14,800 cusecs. On the same day last year, the storage level was 2282.00 feet. Though water is flowing towards Tamil Nadu in copious quantities, the Cauvery basin farmers are waiting for water to irrigate their lands. No water is being released into the Kabini canals yet, except a marginal 2,000 cusecs. Similar is the situation of farmers under KRS and Harangi.

Saturday's recordings showed that KRS is short by just six feet. The water level was 118.95 ft, against the maximum of 124.80 feet. The inflow continued to be heavy at 32,056 cusecs, while no water is being released yet from the reservoir.

With heavy rains in the catchment area of Kodagu, where floods have inundated low-lying areas, KRS is expected to reach its maximum level in a day or two, when water will have to be released from the dam. In the meantime, the irrigation authorities have alerted people of a flash flood at the downstream.

Harangi is also full, with 2,857.36 feet as on Saturday. Its maximum level is 2859.00 feet. It is also receiving a heavy inflow of 11,000 cusecs, and almost the entire inflow is being discharged (9,571 cusecs).

While Tamil Nadu leaders are demanding more water from Karnataka for their Kuruvai crops, a three-member team of the Central Water Commission visited the KRS on July 29 and assessed the situation.

The three-member team, however, did not visit the Kabini dam, which discharges the lion's share of the water to Tamil Nadu.

The team visited the Mettur dam in Tamil Nadu the next day. Mettur has a higher storage capacity than the KRS. The team is expected to submit its report to the Centre in a day or two.