About 100 km away from the hustle and bustle of Bengaluru, the Cauvery sashays down the picturesque rocky terrain of Mekedatu. Broadly meant in Kannada as goat’s leap, Mekedatu, part of the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary, is hardly three km downstream of the point of confluence of the Arkavathy and the Cauvery river, called Sangama. The sanctuary is home to grizzled giant squirrel, considered endemic to Sri Lanka and south India and classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as near threatened.
Endangered fish species, Deccan Mahsheer, and vulnerable species such as oriental small clawed otter are among those which have found a haven in the Cauvery. The popular tourist spot has also been at the centre of intense and heated discussion between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the two southern States through which the Cauvery flows mostly. Of late, the former has been pursuing, with renewed interest, the project of building a reservoir to cater to the drinking water requirements of Bengaluru, as it has allocated ₹1,000 crore in this year’s Budget.
