BENGALURU – In recent weeks, repeated strikes, and shop and office closures have caused widespread disruption in the southern state of Karnataka, as a decades-old dispute with neighbouring Tamil Nadu over the sharing of the Kaveri river triggered new protests.

Millions of IT employees worked from home, factories closed and schools took online classes in Karnataka. Public transport was reduced to a trickle, and vigilantes roamed the streets to stop any activities.

The Kaveri river originates in Karnataka and flows through Tamil Nadu to the Bay of Bengal. Both states have been locked in a 150-year dispute over water-sharing to meet the needs of their expanding populations and agriculture.

The dispute flares up especially during periods of water scarcity, which is the case in 2023. The south-west monsoon ended in September, and all 31 districts in Karnataka received an average of 25 per cent less rainfall, causing drought-like conditions.

In September, when the Kaveri water management authority established by the Indian government instructed Karnataka to extend the release of 5,000 cusecs (over 140,000 litres per second) of water to Tamil Nadu until Oct 15, the government of Karnataka said it could not comply.

It said it would release less water because of the lack of rain and the drought. 

Farmers and political groups in Karnataka then announced a protest, a statewide shutdown of all except essential activities on Sept 26 and 29. 

Public and private transportation unions, private school administrations and the film industry, as well as hotel and restaurant associations, supported the Karnataka dawn-to-dusk shutdown, leaving the roads deserted and bringing Bengaluru, Mandya and Mysore, regions in the Kaveri basin, to a standstill.

A 47-year-old businesswoman said she could not believe that a problem that she had grown up with was still unresolved. 

“In my childhood, my school exams were cancelled as Bengaluru saw riots around the Kaveri issue (in 1991), and now the same issue continues to hold my city hostage,” said the woman, who did not want to give her name for fear of reprisal from groups on strike.

The dispute has at times turned violent. In 1991, mobs in Karnataka attacked Tamil civilians living in the state over a water tribunal’s interim order for Karnataka to share water in the Kaveri reservoir with Tamil Nadu to meet the latter’s shortfall. Thousands of Tamils fled Karnataka, and 28 were killed.  

In 2016, after the Supreme Court ordered Karnataka to share water with Tamil Nadu for its farmers to grow samba rice, protests once again turned into riots.

A day before the shutdown in late September, hundreds tried to leave the IT city of Bengaluru and were stuck in traffic for hours. Some like coder Vikas Jain and his friends were “escaping” for a holiday, but others like accountant Prabha, who gave only one name, and her parents were driving to Chennai five hours away “in case some goons come searching for Tamils to attack”.

Unlike in 1991 and 2016, the recent protests did not see any violence. The police detained 1,500 activists for blocking the roads and released them by the end of the day. More policemen patrolled neighbourhoods with a majority Tamil-speaking population. 

The Karnataka government has now filed a review petition with the Kaveri water management authority against its order instructing release of water to Tamil Nadu.

Dozens of farmers in Trichy, Tamil Nadu, held rats in their mouths in a show of protest. “Without water to irrigate our rice fields, should we eat rats?” asked Mr Ponnusamy Ayyakannu, president of the National South Indian River Interlinking Farmers’ Association’s Tamil Nadu unit.

In Mandya in Karnataka, blindfolded farmers stood near the reservoir shouting in Kannada, the local language, “Kaveri is Karnataka’s lifeline, Kaveri is Kannada’s lifeline”, slogans that reflect the cultural and linguistic identity of the state with the river. 

Water experts and historians differ on which state holds the bigger share of the blame for the dispute – those in Tamil Nadu fault the Karnataka government for refusing to comply with judicial orders to share water, while Karnataka administrators criticise Tamil Nadu officials for refusing to hold talks.

Mr C. Chandrashekhar, a retired police officer in Karnataka and author of the book Kaveri Dispute – A Historical Perspective, said the states should “work on a distress formula (a way to share water during periods of low rainfall) when there is no distress”.

“We cannot remember the Kaveri issue only during shortfalls. A drought year is not the time to work on a water-sharing formula,” he said. 

Most experts agree that the political aspect of the Kaveri dispute has overtaken water conservation efforts that could actually resolve the shortages and help stakeholders who are suffering. 

“Historically, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have been in a competitive mode, each showing that its water needs and consumption exceed the other’s, so that it can then demand a greater share of the Kaveri. So, even small water conservation experiments or ways to cut water use were frowned upon, or didn’t take off widely,” said Bengaluru-based water researcher Vishwanath Srikantiah. 

For instance, he said, water-saving padi cultivation methods in Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu, and projects to repair rainwater-harvesting tanks in Karnataka, were not rolled out across the river basin.

“The once-perennial river the states are fighting over is dying,” said water management professor S. Janakarajan from Chennai. He has worked with farmers from both states to improve cooperation and understanding.

Recent studies show the Kaveri is among the most polluted rivers in India.

Factories along its riverbanks in both states release contaminants, including effluents from pharmaceutical production. The river is also fouled by untreated sewage and pesticides, affecting fish and other animals.

Climate change is another threat, triggering more intense droughts and floods. Conversion of the river delta land for commercial activities is also a problem.

“Farmers from both sides are aware that climate change and land diversion are shrinking the Kaveri delta and its productivity, but the issue is so heavily politicised that we are stuck, unable to fix a situation that is getting worse,” said Dr Janakarajan.

The solutions had already been researched by experts years ago, he added. “All we need is the political will to have dialogue that includes farmers and water experts.”