Claims, counter-claims over sharing Hemavati waters trigger a row

The Hindu

13-06-2025

Calm prevails at Sankapura village, nestled amid coconut and arecanut plantations, nearly two weeks after a massive protest by farmers of Tumakuru district, accompanied by some Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dal (Secular) leaders and religious leaders, in south-eastern Karnataka.
Their opposition to the Hemavati Express Link Canal Project — an offshoot of the Hemavati branch canal that proposes to transfer the river water to nearby Magadi taluk in the neighbouring Bengaluru South district (erstwhile Ramanagara district) — had turned violent. After an estimated 20,000 farmers from various taluks descended on the village in Gubbi taluk to protest on May 31, civil work was ordered to be halted temporarily, while massive pipes procured for the project are lying scattered at the site.
A posse of policemen attached to the Karnataka State Reserve Police is now deployed on the village outskirts. The Tumakuru police have filed 13 FIRs against over 100 people, including three Opposition legislators — G.B. Jyothi Ganesh and Suresh Gowda of the BJP and M.T. Krishnappa of the JD(S) — and seers of four religious mutts, on charges including violating prohibitory orders, damaging public property, and indulging in stone pelting. The government is now considering withdrawing the FIRs against the seers. The protesters, including the legislators, have sought a study by a recognised institute to ascertain the viability of the project.
'The government is pushing the project without consultation and technical discussion. We are not against sharing water, but oppose the project in this form,' says Govind Rao, a coconut grower in Bennuru village, about a kilometre away from Sankapura. The Hemavati branch canal passes between Bennuru and Sankapura villages, where the link canal is proposed to be started. The region is dotted with arecanut, coconut, and pomegranate plantations that are dependent on groundwater. Ragi and vegetables are grown in smaller quantities owing to the unavailability of labour and the rising cost of cultivation, farmers say.
Lack of knowledge
Many villagers The Hindu spoke to had no clear picture of the project and realised its magnitude only after the contractor unloaded massive pipes near the construction site. Near Kallur village, a middle-aged woman, Siddagangaa, aired her apprehension about losing a part of her plantation to the canal work. 'They are planning to take the pipelines through our farms. As it is, our holdings are small and if plants are uprooted, we are ruined,' she says.
The villagers say the government had neither issued notices nor acquired land from farmers for laying the underground pipeline, which caused further confusion. It was B.P. Chandrashekar of Bennuru who flagged the issue and went to court against the project. 'They started excavating the ground to cut a trench to lay the pipes through my farm. One of the fully-grown coconut trees came crashing down. They insisted on continuing the work, and I got a permanent injunction from the Gubbi court,' he says. Following this, many others have approached the court. Chandrashekar says that after the underground pipeline is laid, farmers cannot grow either arecanut or coconut, which are the main crops in the region. 'Only vegetables can be grown,' he says. For Chandrashekar, it is a déjà vu moment as he had earlier lost land for the Tumakuru branch canal and also for another canal that takes water to Gubbi.
According to B.C. Chandan, a farmer, though attempts were made to start the work in May 2024, it was stalled after farmers opposed it. 'This is the second time that the work is being started,' he says.
Approved in 2019
Though the express link canal project received approval in early 2019 from the JD(S)-Congress alliance government, the succeeding BJP government led by B.S. Yediyurappa shelved it. The project was revived by the incumbent Congress government in January 2024, and attempts were made to start the work in May 2024. The project envisages supplying water to Magadi taluk for drinking purposes and groundwater rejuvenation by transferring water to the link canal from the Tumakuru branch canal.
The about ₹1,000-crore project entails taking water from the nearly 240-km-long Tumakuru branch canal (that runs from Channarayapatna to Kunigal) at the 70-km mark and bringing it to the same canal at the 165-km mark through a 34.5 km underground pipeline. Currently, Kunigal gets water from the Tumakuru branch canal after it meanders through Gubbi, Turuvekere, Tumakuru Rural, and Tumakuru. The express canal project cuts the distance by about 60 km.
The project is also linked with the Sri Ranga Lift Irrigation Project that will eventually lift the water towards Magadi taluk from the 191-km mark of the Tumakuru branch canal near Hirekere-Begurkere in Kunigal taluk. About 83 lakes in Magadi taluk are proposed to be filled up using 0.67 tmcft of water to rejuvenate groundwater and to serve the drinking water needs. Though just about 450 metres of excavation work of the link canal project has been completed in the Muzrai Department land belonging to Kencharaya and Sompuradamma temple at Sankapura village, substantial work such as pumping station and sub-stations have been completed in the Sri Ranga Lift Irrigation Project.
But Tumakuru farmers have fears about water yield. 'Once the link canal becomes operational, the water will flow out of the Tumakuru branch canal with force due to gravity, and Tumakuru district can end up getting far less than what has been allocated. The rain-parched district can once again become water-starved,' fears Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha Tumakuru district president A. Govindraju. 'Nobody is opposing water supply to Kunigal, which is also in the Tumakuru district. When the Tumakuru branch canal has been modified to carry a higher quantum of water up to Kunigal at a cost of ₹550 crore, why is the government spending ₹1,000 crore on a new project?'
Farmers also question the need for an underground pipeline. However, the government has justified it, arguing that it is to prevent water theft en route and also distribution losses due to evaporation. Illegal pumping of water from the canal is widespread in Tumakuru, though the police seize pumps regularly.
Bone of contention
The sharing of the Hemavati waters from the 25.3 tmcft allocated to the Tumakuru branch canal has long been the bone of contention. More than a decade ago, farmers had opposed another canal that took water to Sira, also in the Tumakuru district. The taluk-wise allocation notified in 2019 by the State government, after the Supreme Court order confirmed the inter-State water dispute award over the sharing of the Cauvery waters in 2018, provides 25.3 tmcft to be distributed among 14 taluks across Tumakuru, Mandya, Hassan, Chikkamagaluru, Chitradurga, and the erstwhile Ramanagara districts through the Tumakuru branch canal. Magadi is one of the beneficiary taluks proposed to receive 0.67 tmfcft or about 2.64% of the total allocation in the Tumakuru branch canal for drinking water purposes. Of the total, 6.8 tmcft has been earmarked for various drinking water schemes.
No inter-basin transfer
Water Resources Department sources argue that Magadi taluk is in the Cauvery basin and is also part of the taluks that received water allocation in 2019. 'Why is there a problem with Magadi? There has been no inter-basin transfer. As per the National Water Policy, 2012, and the State Water Policy, 2022, Magadi falls in the first-order priority for drinking water. The Sri Ranga Lift Irrigation Project is aligned with the National Water Policy,' says an official.
The overall allocation from the Hemavati has to be seen through legal, social, administrative, and technical perspectives, officials say, even as confusion and lack of awareness prevail among farmers in Tumakuru. An official emphasises that the district boundary is not the criterion for allocating the water, but the basin is the predominant factor. 'Inter-basin transfers have happened in Sira and Hosadurga. We cannot deprive Magadi of water since it is part of the basin,' he says.
Tumakuru and Mandya districts receive the Hemavati waters from the Gorur reservoir in Hassan district through the A.G. Ramachandra Rao Canal, which is the left bank canal (LBC). After traversing for 72 km, the LBC bifurcates near Channarayapatna in Hassan district. While one branch goes towards Tumakuru, the other — Sahukar Chennaiah Canal — goes to Mandya district, serving K.R. Pet, Shravanabelagola, Pandavapura, and Nagamangala.
The branch going towards Tumakuru passes through the Baguru-Navile tunnel, after which it again bifurcates into the Tumakuru branch canal and the Nagamangala branch canal, which together have been allocated 25.3 tmcft. The Nagamangala branch canal serves Tiptur and Turuvekere in Tumakuru district, while Nagamangala in Mandya district is at the tail end.
Farmers of two districts
Over the decades, the distribution of the Hemavati water impounded at Gorur has been a point of contention between Hassan and Tumakuru farmers. Hassan farmers are often accused of utilising a higher quantum of water through the canal networks. Of the total 37 tmcft of water impounded at Gorur, Hassan district gets 18% of the overall allocation, while Tumakuru and Mandya gets 45% and 35% allocation, respectively.
'In fact, Hassan farmers, who have sacrificed land and homes for the Gorur reservoir, could have asked for more allocation than Tumakuru and Mandya,' an official argues. He also points out that the supervisory control and data acquisition mechanism, an electronically controlled canal operating system, to be located at the Hemavati project office in Tumakuru, would regulate and quantify the flow of water, and this office is accessible to all to ascertain the water flow as per the allocation.
In Magadi taluk, 'Kannada' Kumar, a progressive farmer from Hanumapura village who has organised a group of organic farmers, argues that what is playing out around the project now is much politics. He says that Magadi taluk being the catchment area for reservoirs at T.G. Halli, Y.G. Gudda, and Manchanabele does not benefit it owing to the topography. 'Lives in Magadi taluk and Tumakuru district are socially and economically connected. Politicians are playing politics over water. Magadi has been allocated a small quantum.' Magadi's Karnataka Development Programme member T.G. Venkatesh, a resident of Thippasandra, says that they are asking for water to fill lakes and not for irrigation, and that too based on the allocation made. 'Only in years of bad monsoon can there be a problem. Even then, we are seeking only a proportionate release of water,' he says.
Many hues of politics
Now, farmers in Magadi taluk in Bengaluru South district have organised themselves to stage protests, seeking immediate implementation of the project. Political leaders, too, have entered the fray. The keen interest of Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, who also holds the Major and Medium Irrigation portfolio, his brother and former Bengaluru Rural MP D.K. Suresh, and their relative H.D. Ranganath, Congress MLA for Kunigal, in this project has aroused political interests. For the JD(S), opposition in Tumakuru to bring water to Magadi can affect its political equity in Bengaluru South. Congress legislator from Gubbi S.R. Srinivas has aired his opposition to the project, though he has not joined the protest, which is seen as a political compulsion. Farmers in Magadi are questioning the absence of BJP MP representing Bengaluru Rural C.N. Manjunath in the agitations. It has a caste colour too, as it is seen as a covert fight between Lingayats in Tumakuru district and predominantly Vokkaligas in Magadi taluk.
Shivakumar has said the question of dropping the project, cleared by a technical committee, does not arise since about 40% of the work has been completed, and has dismissed the protest as 'politically motivated'. He has accused the legislators of orchestrating the protest despite knowing the details of the project. He has said farmers on both sides are equal before the government, and the interest of all will be protected.