Cauvery water dispute: the history behind.

Introduction.

Kaveri river flows in South Karnataka and then to Tamil Nadu. The sharing of waters of the river Kaveri has been the source of a serious conflict between the Indian states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. 

• The genesis of this conflict, rests in two controversial agreements—one signed in 1892 and another in 1924—between the erstwhile Madras Presidency and Princely State of Mysore. 

• The 802 km Kaveri river has 32,000 sq km basin area in Karnataka and 44,000 sq km basin area in Tamil Nadu. 

• The state of Karnataka contends that it does not receive its due share of water from the river as does Tamil Nadu. Karnataka claims that these agreements were skewed heavily in favour of the Madras Presidency, and has demanded a renegotiated settlement based on "equitable sharing of the waters". 

• Tamil Nadu, on the other hand, pleads that it has already developed almost 3,000,000 acres (12,000 km2) of land and as a result has come to depend very heavily on the existing pattern of usage. Any change in this pattern, it says, will adversely affect the livelihood of millions of farmers in the state. Decades of negotiations between the parties bore no fruit. 

• The Governmentof India then constituted a tribunal in 1990 to look into the matter. After hearing arguments of all the parties involved for the next 16 years, the tribunal delivered its final verdict on 5 February 2007. 

Background of the Conflict.

During middle of the 19th century, numerous plans were drawn up for the utilization of the Kaveri waters by the Princely State of Mysore and the Madras Presidency, of which Tamil Nadu was a part. However, the drought and subsequent famine in the mid-1870s put a hold on the implementation of these plans. The plans were revived by Princely State of Mysore in 1881.

Mysore's plans to revive the irrigation projects met with resistance from the Madras Presidency. Mysore state made a representation to the then British government, after which, a conference was held in 1890 and the Agreement of 1892 was signed.

Agreement of 1892.

This recognised the need for an agreement which would on the one hand allow Mysore reasonable freedom in dealing with its irrigation works and also give Madras practical security against injury to its interests.

In June 1891, Mysore forwarded a set of rules to Madras defining the limit within which no new irrigation works were to be constructed by Mysore across the 15 main rivers without previous reference to Madras.

Some minor changes in the rules suggested by Madras were accepted by Mysore which later resulted in the 1892 agreement which vested prescriptive rights to Madras in sharing the waters of Cauvery.

Construction of dam.

Things came to a head in 1910 when Mysore, under Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar as the king and Sir. M.Visvesvaraya as Chief Engineer came up with a plan to construct a dam at Kannambadi village (in Mysore) to hold up to 41.5 TMC of water. 

• The dam was planned to be built in two stages. In the first stage a capacity of 11 TMC was envisioned, while in the second stage the full capacity was set to be realized. 
• Madras however, refused to give its consent for this move as it had its own plans to build a storage dam at Mettur with a capacity of 80 TMC.

After a reference to the Government of India, permission was accorded to Mysore, but for a reduced storage of 11TMC. During construction, however, the foundation was laid to suit the earlier desired full storage. This raised Madras' hackles and the dispute continued.

• The then British Government of India referred the matter to arbitration under Rule IV of the 1892 Agreement. The Kaveri dispute thus had come up for arbitration for the first time.

Award of arbitration was given on 12 May 1914. The award upheld the earlier decision of the Government of India and allowed Mysore to go ahead with the construction of the dam up to 11 TMC.

Madras appealed against the award and negotiations continued. Eventually an agreement was arrived at in 1924 and a couple of minor agreements were also signed in 1929 and 1933. The 1924 agreement was set to lapse after a run of 50 years.

Agreement of 1924.

The 1924 agreement was set to lapse after a run of 50 years. As a result of these agreements Karnataka claimed that Mysore was forced to give up rights to over 80% of the Cauvery waters. However both Mysore and Madras were able to complete their projects at Kannambadi and Mettur respectively. According to the Agreement of 1924, Mysore Government constructed the Krishnarajasagara dam at Kannambadi to a capacity of 45 TMC, Madras Government built the Mettur dam to hold 93.5 TMC. If the 1892 agreement could last only for 32 years the 1924 agreement which should have been declared no more operative in 1947 continued till 1974.