Water release to TN from KRS stopped since Thursday evening; 18 tmcft released since Aug 1

MANDYA: After releasing about 10 tmcft of water from the Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) Dam near Srirangapatna to Tamil Nadu, the state government has stopped further release on Thursday evening.

Despite protests from farmers, the state government had been releasing water to the neighbouring state on the directives of the Cauvery Water Management Board (CWMB). Following this, the water level at KRS dam has reduced to 102.74 feet from 112 feet recorded 15 days ago. Currently, the dam has only about 25 tmcft of stored water.

From August 1, about 18 tmcft of water has been released to Tamil Nadu, including 6 tmcft from the Kabini dam. Last year, the Mettur dam in Tamil Nadu, which has a storage capacity of 93.41 tmcft of water, was full twice and 51 tmcft of water was let into the Bay of Bengal.

In the event there is no rain in the coming days, many parts of the state, which depend on the Cauvery river for drinking water, may face shortage. Farmers in the Cauvery basin are hoping against hope for more rain in the coming days. For now, water is being released into the canals for irrigation and drinking purposes.

Currently, the inflow is 3,276 cusecs as against 23,682 cusecs during the same time last year. The dam had reached full capacity by this time last year. The current outflow is 5,743 cusecs.