Mysuru: A colloquium on River Cauvery and its protection as one unit from the catchment in Kodagu to the confluence in Tamil Nadu was held yesterday at Karnataka Legislature House II in Bengaluru. The origins of the meeting were the Meet of Peninsular Rivers held in Chennai in November 2019 and the National Water Conference held at Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh in December 2019. 

It was resolved in Ujjain to form a committee to decide on the inter-State peninsular rivers of Godavari, Krishna and Cauvery and to prepare a status report of each river and submit to respective State Governments and also to the Central Government to restore, rejuvenate and try to solve the riparian issues by mutual understanding through people-to-people co-operation. 

For Cauvery River, the Committee was formed with six representatives — three from Tamil Nadu and three from Karnataka. The meeting deliberated the problems faced by the farmers of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu especially when there is a shortage of water. Instead of fighting over the issue and take the matters to the Courts, the participants opined that farmers of both the States could sit across the table before growing crops to resolve mutual issues. 

Concerns were raised on the widespread destruction of greenery in the Cauvery catchment areas of Kodagu and along the Cauvery Basin. Factors including loss of green cover, pollution, mining and inadequate storage were discussed and opinions were aired on inter-linking Cauvery and Godavari so that Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Telangana benefit from it instead of allowing the river water to drain off to the seas. 

Noted advocate and legal luminary Prof. Ravivarma Kumar, Dr. R.H. Sawkar of Geological Society of India, water conservationist Dr. Prakash Rao, retired ISRO Scientist Dr. P.P. Nageshwar Rao, Advocate J.M. Gangadhar and other experts spoke and presented papers. 

Representatives from Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu including Prof. Janakirajan, R.P. Venkatesha Murthy, Kodihalli Chandrashekar, Sunanda Jayaram, Guruswamy, Rajaraman, Prof. Narasimaiah, Manu Somaiah, Mahesh Prabhu, P.T. John, Sajan Aiyappa, Kuttappa, Meenakshi, Machaiah, Brigadier Devaiah, Kuruburu Shanthakumar, Badagalapura Nagendra, Byra Reddy, Siddegowda Patil, Chukki Nanjundaswamy and K.A. Rajegowda participated in the colloquium.