Updated on: 30 Jul 2026
NEW DELHI / BENGALURU: In a major setback to Karnataka, the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) on Thursday rejected the state’s plea of severe distress and ordered it to immediately release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu. Dismissing Karnataka’s argument that deficient rainfall and critically low reservoir levels made compliance impossible, the apex authority directed the state to honor previous mandates.
Upholding the recommendations of the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC), the CWMA instructed Karnataka to release 3,500 cusecs of water per day to its neighboring state for a period of 15 days. Under this directive, Karnataka is mandated to ensure a total discharge of 4 TMC (Thousand Million Cubic feet) of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu. The decision was finalized during an emergency meeting convened by the CWMA to review Karnataka’s formal appeal against the regulatory committee’s order.
Ground Reality Grim: Karnataka Cites Severe Drought and Depleted Dams
During the high-stakes meeting, Karnataka’s legal and technical representatives strongly argued against the water release, putting forward data to highlight a severe water crisis within the state. Officials maintained that inadequate rainfall across the entire Cauvery basin had left Karnataka’s reservoirs severely depleted, rendering it incapable of sparing water without risking its own survival.
Backing its claim with stark figures, the state revealed that only a meager 178 cusecs of water had flowed through the Biligundlu gauging station so far this year—a catastrophic drop compared to the 30,748 cusecs recorded during the corresponding period last year. Furthermore, Karnataka pointed out that the total cumulative flow during June and July collapsed to just 3.55 TMC this year, compared to a robust 116.92 TMC during the exact same period in 2025.
Highlighting the storage crisis, state officials submitted that the combined capacity of Karnataka’s Cauvery basin reservoirs currently stands at just 36.69 TMC, sharply lower than the 99 TMC held at this point last year. They emphasized that while an average monsoon would have seen roughly 40 TMC flow downstream by this stage, severe drought-like conditions have limited that flow to a mere 3.5 TMC.
Urging the CWMA to adopt a humanitarian approach, Karnataka stressed that its remaining reservoir storage must be strictly preserved to meet drinking water requirements and other essential needs in the upcoming months. The state further explained the operational challenge, noting that maintaining a constant flow of 3,500 cusecs at the Biligundlu border would necessitate releasing a far greater, unsustainable volume of water from its upstream reservoirs.
Tamil Nadu Rejects Claims, Demands Strict Distress-Sharing Enforcement
Conversely, Tamil Nadu strongly opposed Karnataka’s arguments, counter-claiming that the CWRC’s recommendation of 3,500 cusecs was merely a bare minimum requirement. The state’s representatives urged the Authority to order an even larger volume of water, asserting that Karnataka’s reservoirs had received nearly 36 TMC of inflows and thus possessed adequate water to fulfill its obligations.
Tamil Nadu maintained that under normal seasonal conditions, it should have received approximately 40 TMC of water by this point in the water year. Presenting its own calculations, the state alleged that Karnataka had failed to honor the legally prescribed distress-sharing formula meant for deficit rainfall years. According to Tamil Nadu’s submission, the flow at Biligundlu over the past two months was just 3.5 TMC, triggering an accumulated shortfall of 9.46 TMC under the agreed-upon distress-sharing mechanism.
