To Soothe Anger, Karnataka Releases Cauvery Water For Its Own Farmers

Bengaluru: After nearly 60 hours of seething demonstrations that have cut off the crucial highways and roads, protests in Karnataka are smaller and quieter today over the release of water from the Cauvery River to neighbouring Tamil Nadu.

In a gesture of appeasement, Karnataka will also release water today for its own farmers in the Mandya region, the epicenter of the protests and the heart of the Cauvery basin.

On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that 15,000 cusecs of water must be given to Tamil Nadu every day for the next 10 days, nearly twice the amount that Karnataka had been releasing recently.

The Cauvery originates in Southern Karnataka and flows into Tamil Nadu. Water sharing has been contentious for decades, and the Supreme Court is frequently called upon to mediate.
 The Karnataka government has written to the centre asking for a team of observers to visit the region to first-hand experience the difficulty in sharing water after disappointing rains.

Some actors from the Kannada film industry are expected in Mandya today to take part in the protests.

Buses are not being allowed to cross the border between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. That means thousands of people from Karnataka employed in factories at Hosur in Tamil Nadu cannot get to work.

Karnataka argues that it has provided enough water for Tamil Nadu farmers to have harvested one crop this season. Schools and colleges in Mandya, which closed down on Tuesday, have still not reopened.

For days, the busy highway between the state capital of Bengaluu and Mysuru has been virtually unusable with demonstrators playing volleyball matches and holding huge cookouts in the middle of the four-lane freeway.