State govt to release water to fill rural waterbodies

Mandya/ Mysuru: Due to drought last summer, waterbodies in rural areas had dried up, causing water crisis. Now, with two of the four major dams in the Cauvery basin receiving good inflow, the state government is releasing water to fill these bodies to avoid potential backlash from villagers in case of another Cauvery crisis.
CNNL inspects
Visvesvaraya Canal
On Monday, the Cauvery Neeravari Nigam (CNNL) authorities carried out an inspection of Visvesvaraya Canal, the main feeder canal of the KRS dam, to release water to fill the tanks.
“We will start releasing water from the canal from Monday night,” explained authorities from the CNNL. The inflow to the dam was 8,425 cusecs. The water level at the dam reached 102.80 feet as against a maximum of 124.80 ft.
With most parts of the Mandya district receiving excess rainfall between June 1, and July 7, the pressure on the Cauvery water has come down. However, the state government is yet to take a decision on releasing water to crops.
Meanwhile, from Kabini dam in HD Kote in Mysuru district water to fill up the tanks will be released from both right and left canals from Wednesday. On Monday, inflow to the dam was 4,711 cusecs while outflow was 2,292 cusecs.
Karnataka Rajya Raita Sangha president Badagalapura Nagendra stated that the farmers are expecting water to crops after the tanks are filled. With major dams getting good inflow, we want the government to release water to our crops at least from this month end, he said.