The Tamil Nadu government on Monday approached the Supreme Court seeking directions to neighbouring Karnataka to release 3,500 cusecs of water from the river Cauvery for 15 days from the Kabini and Krishna Raja Sagara reservoirs, The Hindu reported.

The Tamil Nadu government contended that the release of 4.5 thousand million cubic feet of water, which corresponds to 3,500 cusecs a day for 15 days by August 12, was in accordance with the July 30 decision of the Cauvery Water Management Authority.

An official release said that Karnataka has “failed” to give Tamil Nadu its due share of water, PTI reported.

Chief Minister Vijay directed the state to move the Supreme Court on the advice of senior advocates and secure a “due order”, the release said.

This comes two days after Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said that the water situation had “slightly improved”, The Hindu reported. He appealed to Kannada organisations to call off their proposed state-wide strike on August 13 opposing the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.

The Tamil Nadu government said that as of August 3, the combined storage in Karnataka’s four major Cauvery reservoirs – Krishna Raja Sagara, Kabini, Harangi and Hemavathy – was 77.5 thousand million cubic feet, the news agency reported. This indicates that the state was in a position to release Tamil Nadu’s share of water, it said.

Tamil Nadu further contended that the recent rainfall in the catchment areas of the Krishna Raja Sagara and Kabini dams meant the state was entitled to 26.9 thousand million cubic feet of water at Biligundlu under the proportional sharing formula. A water measuring station, set up by the Central Water Commission at Biligundlu in the Krishnagiri district is used to measure Cauvery water flows.

The Cauvery dispute

The distribution of Cauvery water has been a long-standing dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. It dates back to two agreements in 1892 and 1924 between the erstwhile Madras Presidency and the Princely State of Mysore.

The Union government set up the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal in 1990, which delivered its verdict in 2007. The tribunal allocated 419 thousand million cubic feet of water per year to Tamil Nadu and 270 thousand million cubic feet of water to Karnataka.

However, this did not settle the dispute as both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka filed petitions to review the decision.

The Supreme Court in February 2018 asked the Centre to set up the Cauvery Water Management Authority within a month to implement the tribunal’s verdict.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

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