VELLORE: Farmers optimism on the state government giving a new lease to the Palar river has come a cropper with media reports suggesting that the Karnataka Government plans to block the flow of water to the Pennaiyar River altogether. Farmers here were optimistic that the state government would take up with the Union Ministry of Water Resources, the proposal to divert the excess flow of water from the Thenpennaiyar River below Krishnagiri reservoir to the water-starved Palar basin through a Pennaiyar-Palar link project. This would have given the Palar river and the northern districts of Tamil Nadu a new lease of life. The proposal to divert the excess water from Karnataka was made by the National Water Development Agency. R Mullai, state executive member of the All India Kisan Sangh said that the proposed move is a gross violation of the Inter-state water agreement signed in 1892 and 1954. If implemented, it would mean immediate ruin for Krishnangiri, Dharmapuri and Tiruvannamalai districts and besides shattering hopes of making use of the excess water from the Pennaiyar river to replenish Palar. Quoting the news reports, Mullai said that a ` 36 crore project aimed at blocking the Pennaiyar which originates from the Nandi hills in Karnataka and drains into Kodiyalam and KRP reservoirs in Krishnagiri. Pennaiyar currently supports farming activities on over 36,000 acres in the district.The water thus blocked is planned to be diverted to replenish some 160 tanks in the Malur taluk in Karnataka, which is emerging as a ‘vegetable basket’ in the region. A number of corporates have established their farms here and they reportedly grow vegetables that are marketed through their supermarket chains in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. “A part of the Thenpennai river extends even up to the Sathanur dam in Tiruvannamalai irrigating some 30,000 acres. It is also the main source of drinking water for many villages in the district,” added Mullai.The Pennaiyar-Palar canal link as an Intra-State project was one of the 36 proposals received from seven states including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Orissa, Bihar, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, which are being actively considered by the NDWA through the Ministry of Water resources. Once the excess water from the Pennaiyar is diverted to the Palar, it would replenish the dry Palar basin and the hundreds of irrigation tanks en route that sustain the underground water table in the district. While it is hoped that the TN government would pressurise the central government to implement the Pennaiyar-Palar link, news about the water diversion and the deprivation of it would cause in the districts of Krishnagiri and Vellore should be taken seriously and efforts must be initiated to stop Karnataka’s move to cut water supply from the Pennaiyar. Various associations in the district have also demanded a white paper on the issue from the Tamil Nadu State Government.
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