Even as States like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Assam are ravaged by floods with Bihar alone recording 22 deaths in the last five days, South India is a study in contrast. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are experiencing a drought like situation with the South West Monsoon of 2016 ending as a failure.
The National Disaster Response Forces are struggling to save the people of the flood ravaged States in north and north east India. All these State Governments have issued alerts indicating that water level rivers like Ganga are in dangerous level. “Had there been a series of canals from these rivers to South India, the entire flood water could have been transferred to Tamil Nadu. There would not have been any flood in North India,” said Prof PM Natarajan, eminent hydrologist.
Since last one week, tempers are running high in Tamil Nadu following the refusal of Karnataka to release Cauvery water as per the verdict of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal. This has made Tamil Nadu to file a interlocutory petition in Supreme Court pleading the apex court to direct Karnataka to release water from Cauvery.
Karnataka has declared that the reservoirs of the State are precariously short of water. According to a release by the Government of Karnataka on August 18, water level in Krishna Raja Sagar Dam which supplies water to Mettur Dam in Tamil Nadu, is less than 13 tmcft, the lowest storage level in the last four decades. The Karnataka Government has asked farmers in the State to opt for only semi-arid crops like maize, pulses and ragi because of the precarious water situation But farmers in Tamil Nadu have declared a series of agitations to force Karnataka to part with its legally allocated share of water as the season for Sampa crop is hardly weeks away.
“The Kuruvai (short term crop) cultivated in the June-August period was a wash out in the five Cauvery Delta districts as there was no release of water by Karnataka. The fate of Sampa crop will not be any different in these districts. It is good that the Tail Nadu Government has announced a package for the Cauvery Delta districts following the failure of the Kuruvai crop. The same financial package should be made available to the Sampa farmers in non-Cauvery Delta farmers,” said RV Giri, president, Consortium of Indian Farmers Association.
Kattumannarkoil Kannan, president, Tamil Nadu Kisan Morcha and national council member of the BJP said that the only option available before the central government to tide over the water scarcity is to launch the inter linking of the peninsular Indian rivers. “The west flowing rivers in Karnatala like Hemavathy, Herangi etc should be diverted to the East and linked with Cauvery. The water which is wasted into the Arabian Sea could be used for farming operations in both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu,” said Kannan who is also the general secretary of the Cauvery Delta Farmers welfare Association. S Kalyanaraman, director, Saraswathi Research Centre, Chennai, said once the peninsular rivers are inter linked, the union and state governments could save billions of rupees every years which are spent for flood relief operations. "The benefits will be unbelievable. The paddy production in Tamil Nadu alone will see a quantum jump. We can have 30,000 MW of clean and green power through mini and micro hydel projects once the peninsular rivers have sufficient water flow. This will also help greening the environment," said Kalyanaraman.
Radhakrishnan, senior DMK leader who had approached the apex court in 2002 with a plea to inter link the rivers in the country, said the inter linking of major Indian rivers is the only solution to save the States from recurring floods and draught. “This has become an annual ritual. While the North Indian States squirm because of floods, states like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh face serious draught. This paradox has to end," said Radhakrishnan.