The Cauvery water dispute is a long-standing conflict between the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka over the sharing of waters of the Kaveri River. The Kaveri River is an interstate basin that originates in Karnataka and passes through Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry before draining into the Bay of Bengal. The dispute dates back to the colonial era when the British government established agreements to allocate the rivers waters among the princely states of Mysore and Madras presidency (now Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, respectively) . The 1892 and 1924 agreements played a pivotal role in bringing the stretch of the Cauvery River between the Krishna Raja Sagar Dam and the Mettur Dam to the forefront of the Cauvery water dispute. The 1924 agreement provided that Tamil Nadu would receive 75% of the water, Karnataka, 23%, and Kerala, the rest.
The Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) was constituted in 1990 to adjudicate the water sharing issue. The tribunals final order was issued in 2007, which allotted 30 tmc (thousand million cubic feet) to Kerala, 270 tmc to Karnataka, 419 tmc to Tamil Nadu, and 7 tmc to Puducherry. However, the dispute has persisted, and the Supreme Court has been involved in the matter. In its January 2018 judgment, the Supreme Court agreed with Karnataka that Bengaluru is a world-class metropolis in need of water infrastructure. The Supreme Court ordered Karnataka to give 177.25 million cubic feet of water to Tamil Nadu instead of 192 million cubic feet at the interstate contact point at Biligundlu.
The Cauvery water dispute is a contentious issue that has been shaped by politics, geography, and hydrology, and it has been exacerbated by the climate crisis. The concerned states are Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry (UT) . Many districts in both states are dependent on the Cauvery River for irrigation, while the city of Bengaluru gets its water mostly from this river. The dispute has led to protests and tensions between the states, and it is a significant issue for Indian federalism.
