Amidst protest by farmers against release of water to Tamil Nadu on Saturday, the outflow from the reservoirs in the Cauvery basin continued in compliance with the directives of Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA).
The CWMA has directed Karnataka to release water at the rate of 5000 cusecs per day till September 27th which was opposed by the State and it approached the Supreme Court. But the Apex Court refused to intervene in the CWMA order which is now binding on the State in compliance with which the water is being released.
The outflow from the Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) near Srirangapatana was at the rate of 6034 cusecs of which 2503 cusecs is being discharged into the canals for irrigation in and around Mandya and Cauvery basin in Karnataka. An additional 400 cusecs is being released into the Devaraja Canal and 50 cusecs each into the Right Bank Low Level Canal and Left Bank Low Level Canal apart from 50 cusecs to Mysuru City Corporation for meeting domestic consumption.
The discharge from the KRS into the river which flows to Tamil Nadu is at the rate of 2973 cusecs. An additional 2500 cusecs is being released from the Kabini reservoir at HD Kote in Mysuru district and the cumulative discharge from both the reservoirs that will flow to Biligundlu on the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border is at the rate of 5473 cusecs as on 8 a.m. on Saturday.
Consequent to continuous discharge the water level at the KRS as on Saturday morning declined to 96.90 feet against the full reservoir level of 124.80 feet. The reservoir level on the same day last year was 124.36 ft. The gross storage capacity of KRS is 49.45 tmc ft against which the actual storage as on Saturday was 20.48 tmc ft of which about 4 tmc ft constitutes dead storage. The live storage in the dam on the same day last year was 48.84 tmc ft.
The water level at Kabini reservoir was 2275.01 feet against the full reservoir level of 2284 ft. The water level on the same day last year was 2283.04 ft. The gross storage capacity of the reservoir is 19.52 tmc ft against which the storage position on Saturday was 14.28 tmc ft.
