Crops on 1.88L acres have wilted in State's Cauvery basin: expert panel

The panel headed by Central Water Commission chairman (CWC) G S Jha in its report submitted to the Supreme Court on Monday said Karnataka has sown 6.15 lakh acres under the command areas of the Kabini, Hemavathy, Harangi and KRS and about 1.88 lakh acres have withered away.

The team which toured Karnataka and Tamil Nadu following the direction of the Supreme Court said that in Karnataka it is a mix of paddy, maize, sugarcane and ragi whereas in Tamil Nadu it is Samba paddy, turmeric and sugarcane. 

“In Karnataka, the survived crops are of mid growth stage, requiring limited period of watering and may require only three to four waterings/ irrigation to survive the crops which are in pre-wilting stage,” said the report. 

In the current year, Tamil Nadu had only single Samba crop in the command area of the Mettur reservoir to be cultivated on 12 lakh acres for which the government is expected to provide water. 

The report observed that the allocation of assessed 740 tmcft of water has been made by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal among all the riparian states considering the flows at 50% dependability. This implies that on an average, every two years out of four years are likely to be low flow years, the report.

Water requirementThe total water requirements of Karnataka up to the end of May 2017 including irrigation, drinking water and evaporation (6 tmcft) are 65.48 tmcft while the availability up to the end of May 2017 is 89.16 tmcft. The total water requirement of Tamil Nadu will be 163 tmcft (irrigation of 12 lakh acres, drinking, evaporation and releasing three tmcft to Puducherry) against the expected availability of 143.18 tmcft up to the end of May 2017, the report stated.

Inflow into Karnataka reservoirs are 49.76% of the normal flows as on October 13 after taking into consideration the average inflow in the last 29 years. Flow at Biligundlu (water release point from Karnataka to Tamil Nadu) is 40.75% of the normal flows as on October 12. (This means the flow at Biligundlu was 58.37 tmcft as on October 13 against the scheduled flows of 143.23 tmcft in a normal year).