A dry spell along the Cauvery

A weak monsoon has left farmers on both sides of the Cauvery struggling with dwindling water supplies. In Karnataka, farmers are worried about irrigation even as the State faces pressure to release water to Tamil Nadu, where large tracts of paddy fields remain barren. The competing demands have sharpened tensions between the two States

Published - August 22, 2026 04:44 am IST

A farmer sits in his dry paddy field at Vilakudi near Thiruthuraipoondi in the Tiruvarur district of Tamil Nadu. | Photo Credit: R. Vengadesh

Marilingaiah, a farmer from Karnataka’s Kuntanahalli village in Maddur taluk of Mandya district, has raised a nursery of paddy seedlings on his two-acre plot. He is waiting for water to reach his fields, which lie at the tail end of the Visvesvaraya irrigation canal system. The canal draws water from the Krishna Raja Sagara (KRS) reservoir, located across the Cauvery river near Mysuru.

Editorial | Distress and dispute: On Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and the Cauvery

Worried, he says, “If water does not flow into the fields in the next 7-10 days, I will not only have to give up hopes of sowing paddy, but also lose the ₹8,000 I have spent on raising the nursery.”

Marilingaiah knows that adequate rainfall, along with canal water, is essential for the paddy to survive. Yet, he is among the many farmers in Karnataka’s Cauvery basin who have defied official advice against sowing water-intensive crops such as paddy and sugarcane this season, amid a predicted deficient monsoon and inadequate inflows into the basin’s reservoirs.

The optimism of the farmers was fuelled by a brief revival of the monsoon in the first week of August, when the water level in the 124.8-foot KRS reservoir rose from 93-94 ft to over 100 ft within a few days, before stagnating at 109 ft.

While farmers like Marilingaiah have chosen to trust nature instead of switching to semi-dry crops such as ragi, pulses, or oilseeds, others are waiting for a clearer picture to emerge. D.K. Ramu of Kodihalli village in Maddur taluk and Raju of Siddapura village in Srirangapatna taluk are among them. “If there is a promise of water in the next few days, I will sow paddy. Otherwise, I will grow ragi,” Ramu says. However, he notes that heavy rain could also damage the ragi crop.

Farmers across Karnataka’s Cauvery basin are facing not only the pressure of a deficient monsoon and uncertainty over the availability of irrigation water, but are also concerned about the need to share the limited Cauvery water with neighbouring Tamil Nadu — a vexed issue that goes back more than 130 years.

Also read: Cauvery water received by T.N. in July hits 50-year low

Meanwhile, in Tamil Nadu, farmers in the Cauvery delta are facing a water crisis of their own. Low storage at the Mettur dam, Karnataka’s failure to release a sufficient share of the water it received in June and July, and the Tamil Nadu government’s decision not to open the dam for irrigation on the customary date of June 12 have left large tracts of paddy fields barren. The State continues its legal battle with Karnataka to secure its share of the Cauvery water.

Balancing competing water needs

With the monsoon falling short and reservoir levels under pressure, Karnataka has had to balance irrigation needs with drinking water requirements and its obligations under the Cauvery water-sharing arrangement.

On August 19, the Cauvery Irrigation Advisory Committee, a regional body chaired by Karnataka Water Resources Minister N. Cheluvarayaswamy, met in Bengaluru and decided to release canal water in only four rotational cycles during the crop season, instead of continuously. This decision was taken to conserve reservoir storage and to ensure water availability for other needs, including for drinking.

Devaraj, a farmer from Attahalli village near Mysuru, says the plan to release water for about 15 days and then stop it for the next 15 days will not provide enough water for paddy and sugarcane crops. “Farmers will be able to grow only dry crops,” he says.

The State is also under pressure from the Supreme Court and the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) to share the limited water with Tamil Nadu in what is shaping up to be a distressing year. This central body was set up in June 2018 by the Union government to handle water-sharing from the Cauvery among Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Puducherry.

On August 11, Karnataka appealed to the CWMA to immediately reduce water releases to Tamil Nadu from 12,000 cusecs per day to 10,000 cusecs, warning that there will be a severe drinking water shortage if more water is released for crops in the Cauvery basin now.