DMK Files Supreme Court Petition For Urgent Cauvery Water Release

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) petitioned the Supreme Court on Saturday to order Karnataka to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu immediately. The opposition party demands compliance with binding directives from the Cauvery Water Management Authority.

DMK Farmers Wing Secretary and Former MP A.K.S. Vijayan filed the application, which Senior Advocate P Wilson settled.

The party approached the apex court as the Tamil Nadu government prepares to file its own appeal before the Supreme Court. The petition highlights an emerging water crisis in the state during a sensitive phase of the agricultural cycle in the Cauvery Delta.

Threat to Rice Bowl

The application outlined the severe agricultural risks currently facing Tamil Nadu. Roughly 14.913 lakh acres in the Cauvery Delta rely on irrigation from the Mettur reservoir, which depends entirely on water flows realised at Biligundlu from Karnataka releases.

"The present period is the most crucial period of the entire water year for the Cauvery Delta, and it is precisely now that the water is required to flow," the application stated.

The petition stated that the current period is critical for raising the Kuruvai (short-term) paddy crop and for undertaking preparatory and transplantation operations for the Samba (long-term) crop in the Cauvery Delta.

The petition warned of immediate agricultural collapse. "If water is not realised at Biligundlu now, the standing Kuruvai crop will wither before harvest, the ensuing Samba cultivation—the mainstay of the Delta—will equally be imperilled for want of both river flows and groundwater and the fertile Cauvery Delta, the rice bowl of Tamil Nadu, faces the real and imminent danger of being reduced to a desert," it stated.

The Water Dispute

The Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) directed Karnataka on July 28 to release 3,500 cusecs of water per day at Biligundlu for 15 days, starting July 29. Karnataka challenged this directive before the CWMA. The authority dismissed the appeal on July 30.

Previous Supreme Court and tribunal rulings require Karnataka to maintain a stipulated monthly flow from June to January, totalling 167.25 TMC. Tamil Nadu asserts a current backlog of 9.46 TMC.

Karnataka opposed the water release demand. It sought to keep the matter in abeyance, citing acute distress, inflow shortfalls, low reservoir storage, drinking water requirements and conveyance losses.

The mandated release of 3,500 cusecs per day for 15 days amounts to approximately 4.5 TMC. The DMK application stated this volume remains far below Tamil Nadu's entitlement, even under a distress-sharing framework.