A weak monsoon leaves both deltas parched. A farmer sits on his dry paddy field at Vilakkudi near Thirusurapond in Tiruvarur district of Tamil Nadu. A stark image of a weak monsoon that has left farmers on both sides of the Cauvery struggling with dwindling water supplies.
In Karnataka, farmers are worried about irrigation even as the State faces pressure to release water to Tamil Nadu, where large tracts of paddy fields remain barren. The competing demands have sharpened tensions between the two States.
Marilingiah, a farmer from Karnataka's Katanahatti village in Maddur taluk in Mandya district, has raised a nursery of paddy seedlings on his two-acre plot. He is waiting for water to reach his fields through the Visvesvaraya irrigation canal system. The canal draws water from the Krishnaraja Sagar dam, located on the Cauvery. Worried, he says, "If water does not flow into the fields in the next 10 days, I will not only have to give up raising paddy, but also lose the 98,000 I have spent on raising the nursery.
"Marilingiah knows that adequate rainfall, along with canal water, is essential for the paddy crop to survive. Yet, he is among many farmers in Karnataka's Cauvery basin who have defied official advice to grow water-consuming crops such as paddy and sugarcane this season, amid a predicted deficient monsoon and inadequate inflows into KRS reservoir.
The optimism of the farmers was fuelled by a brief revival of the monsoon in the first week of August, which raised the level of the KRS reservoir from 59.94 ft to over 100 ft within a few days, before stagnating at 105 ft.In Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Mayiladuthurai and Nagapattinam, largely barren paddy fields - vast should have come last year. You would have found greenery everywhere," says A.T.R. Karunanidhi, a farmer of Kilakudiyanur, about 20.5 km from Thiruvarur.
Ordinarily, paddy is cultivated across 3.5 lakh acres in the Cauvery delta during the ongoing short-term Kuruvai season, followed by cultivation of 12.5 lakh acres during the longer Samba/Thaladi season, which begins with transplantation in late July or early August and ends with the harvest in mid-January.
According to Tamil Nadu government data, the area under paddy cultivation this year has fallen to 4.5 lakh acres. However, some are cultivating despite the figure. They say there have been instances of stunted growth and crops showing signs of withering, making the official figure unreliable.
"Economic activity in the region is getting crippled because of the erosion of livelihood opportunities," says P.R. Pandian, president of the Tamil Nadu All Farmers Organisations Coordination Committee and a resident of Mannargudi. "Shops and other businesses here down their shutters by 7 p.m."Located along the eastern coast, the Cauvery delta, spanning districts such as Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Mayiladuthurai, and Nagapattinam, is characterised by fertile alluvial soil and a tropical climate with the flow of the Cauvery. Its importance can be gauged from the fact that during the previous Kuruvai year of 2024-25, the region contributed 7.5 lakh tonnes out of the State procurement of 57.5 lakh tonnes.
Ordinarily, when water is released from the Mettur dam on June 12 for irrigation, it reaches our area about 300 kilometres downstream, by June 21 or 24. But this year, nothing, says Jeyaraman, who taught English at several institutions of higher education before taking up farming after retirement.If water does not flow into the fields in 10 days, I will not only have to give up raising paddy, but also lose the 98,000 I have spent - MARILINGIAH .
Yet many parts of the zone remain economically backward with a majority of the population still dependent on farming for their livelihood, and facing recurring climate challenges. Scheduled Castes, who live in large numbers in the region, constitute the dominant agricultural workforce, but many of them are landless or small and marginal farmers. These are the reasons why successive Tamil Nadu governments have been keen to protect the delta's agrarian character.
Opening the Mettur dam this year, given the poor forecast for the south-west monsoon, attributed to super El Nino, the Tamil Nadu government announced that it would be opened on June 12. The authorities should not release water from the dam until the water level reaches 50 feet. "Some people are saying it is about 85 ft, against the full capacity of 120 ft. The Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and the Supreme Court have directed a specific quantum of the river water to be released by Karnataka to Tamil Nadu during the south-west monsoon months of June to September by the Cauvery Water Management Authority. This share is mostly meant to support paddy cultivation during the Samba season.