After 14 years, Tamil Nadu records lowest Cauvery realisation

Cauvery water released from the Grand Anicut in Thanjavur in September 2026 | Photo Credit: R. Vengadesh

After a gap of 14 years, Tamil Nadu has realised the lowest realisation of the Cauvery river during southwest monsoon (June-September) in 2026.

In the last four months, the State got 44.208 thousand million cubic feet (tmc ft). Usually, its quota for the period is 123.14 tmc ft. Going by this yardstick, the shortfall in realisation is almost 79 tmc ft. During the monsoon of 2023-24, the State recorded around 45 tmc ft.    

However, statistically, the current year’s receipt marked the fourth low realisation since 1974-75, when certain provisions of the 1924 Tamil Nadu-Karnataka agreement on the sharing of the Cauvery river became due for review.

The present storage of the Mettur dam, from which the release of water for irrigation began about a month ago, would last nearly for 18 days, in the event of the current level of discharge (15,003 cubic feet per second or 1.2963 tmc ft. in a day)  getting continued. As on date, the storage is 36.639 tmc ft. (capacity: 93.47 tmc ft.). An allowance of 10 tmc ft. has to be provided for drinking water requirement, environmental flows and dead storage.