CWMA orders Karnataka to send 6,000 cusecs to Tamil Nadu; Bengaluru calls it impossible

The Cauvery Water Management Authority on 8 September directed Karnataka to maintain a flow of 6,000 cusecs to Tamil Nadu for 15 days. The order came at the authority's 57th meeting in Delhi, chaired by S.K. Haldar, and upheld a recommendation issued the same day by the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee. Officials from both states sat in the room. Karnataka's water resources minister, N. Cheluvarayaswamy, said even that reduced figure is impossible and that the state is considering the Supreme Court.

The numbers explain the fight. On 25 August the CWMA, again backing the CWRC, had told Karnataka to hold 9,000 cusecs at the Biligundulu border gauge for 15 days, a volume that would have given Tamil Nadu about 11.66 TMC. Tamil Nadu went back to the Supreme Court when the water did not arrive at that rate. The court told Chennai to take the grievance to the CWMA. The 8 September sitting was that hearing.

Karnataka asked the committee to cut the release to 2,000 cusecs. It cited a week of weak inflows and drinking-water demand inside the state. Tamil Nadu asked for 17,000. The CWRC split the difference at 6,000. Cheluvarayaswamy called the figure absurd. "Reservoir inflows have declined since last week and releasing 6,000 cusecs is simply impossible. Those sitting in Delhi and issuing orders do not understand the drinking water crisis faced by people here," he said.

The reservoirs back him on the inflows, if not on the legal duty. Combined discharge from Krishnaraja Sagar and Kabini fell from 11,983 cusecs to 5,200 cusecs in a single day, a drop of 6,783 cusecs or about 57 percent. Of the 5,200, KRS was sending 4,800 and Kabini 1,200. Rain had stopped in Kodagu. On Monday morning KRS stood at 106.84 feet against a full reservoir level of 124.80 feet. Inflow at KRS was 2,511 cusecs while outflow was 4,800, so the lake was falling. Kabini sat at 2,268.50 feet against a full level of 2,284 feet.

Tamil Nadu watches the same gauges from the other end. Water that crosses Biligundulu feeds Mettur Dam and the delta canals that carry the kuruvai and samba seasons. A 15-day pulse at 6,000 cusecs is smaller than the August order and larger than what Karnataka is actually releasing today. If Bengaluru holds the outflow near 5,200, the CWMA order is already being missed on the first morning after it was signed.

This is the old Cauvery pattern in a dry week. The tribunal award and the CWMA exist so that neither state can set the share by reservoir panic alone. Karnataka's argument is that a distress year changes the arithmetic. Tamil Nadu's argument is that distress is when the formula matters most. Cheluvarayaswamy said his officials presented "ground realities" and were ignored. He also said the state is "making continuous efforts to ensure that no water is released," a line that will be read in Chennai as a statement of intent rather than a weather report.

If Karnataka files in the Supreme Court, the 15-day clock and the court calendar will collide. Fifteen days from 8 September runs to 23 September. A stay application can be listed faster than that. Without a stay, the CWMA order stands and the gauge at Biligundulu becomes the daily scoreboard. With a stay, Mettur's inflow becomes the political argument in the delta. Either way, the river is now lower than the paper.