The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Vellore farmers are asking for Palar tribunal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 14, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Vellore farmers are asking for Palar tribunal

By P. V.V. Murthi

VELLORE, SEPT. 13. The demand for a Cauvery-type campaign to ensure annual release of water into the Palar by Karnataka is gaining momentum among farmers of Vellore district.

This follows a prediction by remote-sensing geological surveys of the possibility of the district turning into a desert by 2025 owing to monsoon failure, and the absence of water in the Palar with Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh impounding rainwater in their reservoirs.

Though there is no surface water in the Palar now — water once flowed in the river, according to the people belonging to the previous generation — its potential underground resources fed the drinking water supply schemes of eight municipalities, several town panchayats and wayside villages and supported irrigation.

During the rainy season, the Palar was also fed by the tributaries of the Kallar, the Thimmapettai river near Avaranguppam, the Goddaru near Vaniyambadi, the Velakkal Aaru near Ambur, the Pernambut Aaru near Pachakuppam, the Koil Malayaru near Odugathur, the Agaram Aaru near Agaramcheri, the Goundanyamahanadhi near Pallikonda and the Ponnaiaru near Tiruvalam.

Tributaries too go dry

But, following continuous failure of monsoon in the last three years not only the Palar but its tributaries also have dried up, resulting in an unprecedented drought in Vellore district.

The executive committee of the Vellore District Pambaru, Palar and All- Reservoir Irrigation Farmers' Protection of Right to Life Association, which met at Vaniyambadi last week, appealed to the Tamil Nadu Government to establish a Palar Water Disputes Tribunal on the lines of the Cauvery tribunal and ensure that Karnataka released 20 thousand million cubic feet of water into the river every year.

A resolution said 90 per cent of the population in the district was hit by drought, the people being dependent solely on the Palar.

Opposition to dams

The association also opposed construction of reservoirs across the Palar tributaries. The move will only aggravate the crisis, preventing the flow of rainwater through the tributaries into the river, the farmers feel.

With Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh already impounding rainwater in their reservoirs across the Palar, the Tamil Nadu Government building dams across the tributaries would add insult to injury.

The association pleaded for a halt to ongoing construction activities and preliminary work on building of the Andiappanur reservoir (across the Andiappanur Odai), Melarasambattu (across the Koil Malayaru) and Velakkalnatham (across the Velakkal Aaru).

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