The temporarily-suspended row between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the Hogenakal drinking water project has been remarkable for the almost complete lack of nuance and expertise in the articulation of the dispute. The key players on both sides — politicians, bureaucrats, engineers, lawyers, journalists — have been happy to let a complex legal issue be thrashed out at an emotional level on the streets.
Aside from the existence of a decade-old No Objection Certificate, there has been little or no effort to dig deep and explain the genesis of the row; how it suddenly erupted at this point in time; what the legal position is; what could be the way out, etc. The intellectual darkness proved to be fertile ground for language chauvinists and film parochialists on both side to whip up passions.
One exception has been the former Karnataka irrigation minister and former member of Parliament, H.N. Nanje Gowda, who gave a long interview to S.R. Aradhya of Udaya TV (above) and followed it up with comments to N. Niranjan Nikam of Deccan Herald. Gowda may not be the last word on the subject, but still his effort to explicate the controversy, as is, in a superheated atmosphere is unexceptionable.
The main points Gowda makes are:
# The Hogenakal row is not about water, it is about land. If it is just about drinking water, then let me state categorically that there is no problem at all. After all, it is just 1.46 tmc ft of water that Tamil Nadu is seeking for Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts. To draw this water, no dam is required to be built. All it requires is just a jackwell.
# There are four dimensions to Hogenakal. They are drinking water needs, irrigation needs, power project, and the holiday resort. As far as I can see, the real bone of contention is the resort. Both States claim that the 500-600 acre island, on which the Tamil Nadu tourism department is trying to build a resort, belongs to them.
# Hogenakal was part of Coimbatore district till 1956 when it was handed over to Karnataka. The Cauvery river forms the border between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for about 64 km. This is called the “common reach”. Hogenkal is at the 40th km. By international convention, if a river lies between two states or countries, then the centre point of the river forms the border. The island where TN wants to build a resort lies in the middle at Hogenakal but TN has not allowed a survey to be held to determine which State the island belongs to.
# The Union Government, way back in 1998, had proposed construction of four hydel projects, viz Shivanasamudram, Mekedatu, Rasimanal and Hogenakal. Karnataka agreed to the sharing of power generated by Rasimanal and Hogenakal which are situated in the common reach of the river Cauvery. However, Karnataka objected to the sharing of power generated by Shivanasamudram and Mekedatu projects on the ground that these projects fall entirely within the territory of Karnataka.
# We have to see is what the project report says. We also do not know whether they have submitted any project report to the Centre or not. Similarly I am not sure if the Karnataka government also has submitted any project report to Government of India or not…. If there is apprehension that Tamil Nadu in the guise of taking up drinking water project will construct a dam, which will result in submersion of the area, then we can approach the Centre at any time.
# The reasons for the current situation are the lack of transparency on the part of governor of Karnataka, Rameshwar Thakur, and the irresponsible, provocative and unwarranted statements of chief minister of Tamil Nadu, M. Karunanidhi. I wrote two letters to the governor urging him to have consultations with various parties on the irrigation projects but there has not even been an acknowledgement.
# If Karunanidhi is whipping up the Hogenakal issue ten years after the no-objection certificate was obtained, as a member of UPA, he probably has a hunch that the parliament will be dissolved, and maybe wants to hold assembly elections in Tamil Nadu simultaneously.
Videograb: courtesy Udaya TV
Link courtesy Rajeev Rao
Also read: CHURUMURI POLL: Who is right on Hogenakal?
churumuri 
Oh, So…Border dispute again ha?..Border-water dispute bordering on unfunny!
Will we never hear the end of this long drawn out chewing gum of a dispute on what should have belonged to KA from Reorganisation days?
On TN side- Hosur, Ooty, Denkani kota ( anything else?)
on AP side- MaDaksira, Hindupur, Adoni and generally most of Rayalseema
on MH side- Solapur, akkalkote etc
On Kerala side- Kasargod etc
The KannaDa horaaTa has no sane agenda anymore and are digging up dead and buried issues like this… One would think these disputed places now belonged to another enemy country and not inside India…
And also as if they did belong to KA, they would have become ‘Paradises’ instead of the probably ‘Hellish’ conditions there..Is that what they mean?
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Nagesh,s comments are out of the track. The border dispute if any, is being kept alive not by Karnataka but the politicians of neighbouring states. Their political base is from digging up graves. Take Maharastra, it is doing proxy war thru MES. As a common man I too feel that it should not matter in which state a particular place is located as long it is an inteegral part of the country. But, if these problems can be solved with such simple sentence our politicians become jobless.
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@KSS:
As fas as I remember from Newspaper reports, Vattal and others did mention Hosur, Krishnagiri and dharmapuri this time as namma gaDinaadu and someone from TN retaliated with claims on Kolar, and even bangalore cantt.
I have atended kannada sahitya sammelans too and every time there is a demand on our ‘poor gadinadu pradesha’ by all and sundry..’Madaksira nammadu, adoni nammadu’ etc..
kssomeswar, thus my comments on this blog mentioning border dispute to be the main villain than water sharing is not ‘out of track’!
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Nagesh,
Its easy to blame Karnataka for everthing that is going on right?? Easy as it may be to lay blame on one state ( which I may remind does not have an elected government at the moment) I am sure the rhetoric by various leaders holds true to our nieghbouring states as well – all the states that you have mentioned in your comment. There is no need to just highlight those in Karnataka. Politicians are the same in every corner of the country. In fact the Hogenakal controversy was ignited and fueled by the statements made by TN chief minister M. Karunanidhi. He must have thought that he could get away with it when there is no elected government in Karnataka. He may have had his vested insterests in making those statements, however the reaction shown in Karnataka .. made it quite clear that he cannot take us for granted and spin issues to suit his political needs. I do agree with H.N. Nanje Gowda .. that Karunanidhi definitely has some special insight into the UPA government and is thus exercising his muscle to demand some favors.
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Go, Nanje Gowda, go.
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I feel this time TN has a valid case. Consider this:
1.Out of 200+ TMC released by Karnataka and another 200+ from their own catchment areas TN,30-40% of this just flows in to the Bay of Bengal.
2.Kaveri starting from Kodagu flows into Kollegala [Chamarajanagara Dist.] where it crosses over to TN.This cross over point happens to be Hogenakal ,meaning “smoking rock”: The spray of the river hitting the rocks is so fine that it appears like smoke,which is a part of TN.
3.Districts in TN,Dharmapuri,Krishnagiri and also Chennai face acute drinking water shortage,Dharmapuri & Krishnagiri has contaminated drinking water which is completely flouride water and has India’s highest cases of Flourosys. http://www.hinduonnet.com/2004/05/25/stories/2004052513120500.htm
4. 1,334 crore Hogenakkal scheme, envisages supply of 160 million litres of water a day to 40.4 lakh people in the parched districts of Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri and ultimately to Chennai in its last phase.
5.NOW,Karnataka is objecting to the land where the Drinking water project is being constructed.This is actually in Kuthappaadi village, which is very much in Tamil Nadu but we are claiming that this entire stretch was not divided correctly ni 1956 and hence belongs to Karnataka.The 1956 Division has been surveyed,Gazetted by both the Govt’s then.No Voice of protest reported on this in the last 50 years !!
6.The most logical thing to do was to file a PIL in the High Court,which was promptly done by Karnataka but was dismissed by the High Court immediately as they did not see any thing having gone wrong during the 1956 division of territories.
Sadly,We are now pursuing illogical methods.
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@kannadada kuDi
( cauvery neeranoo kuDI..LOL)…
You have totally missed the point, my friend..The Blog here is on LAND dispute and you have harped on the old WATER dispute vis-a-vis karuna’s statement, water project etc. This is what nanjeGowda is disputing..IT is Not about water to TN dists…It’s about unresolved border dispute which I commented on and You got confused on..sariyaagi blog Odi swamI..
@Pulikeshi;;Go , nanjegowda, Go huh?…That’s what I said…. Go away , in fact (;)
@Sridhar:
Yes, My friend exactly…Some here think all Kannadigas MUST have the same opinion or else they are traitors to kannada etc…
Courts won’t touch Karnataka’s case…
Supreme Court will just delay it with numerous sittings and adjournments…..
( and when the verdict does come, karnataka will go into emotional overdrive if judgement is against it and BURN the copies of judgement on streets and sing “nyaaya ellide, nyaaya ellide?”)
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@Nagesh,
I only submitted the facts known to me.But Swami.Point taken.Having mentioned the facts,I may have become a traitor.Aadhre democracy antha ondhu idyalla swami.Nyaya Bekadre sariyagi ee problemna approach madbekalva-
1.First decide what we want.
[a]Do we want to resolve these border disputes after a long gap of 52 years?[b]No problem Just because 52 years ago we got injustice doesnt mean we can’t set it right now.We can.But Are we ready with the facts & the data?
[c]Or It does’nt matter really if we dont acheive all the above,We just need the world to know that Kannadiga of today has evolved and can shout loudly and protest and wishes to make himself heard?And in the process We want to actually scare the Non Kanndiga’s living in Karnataka so much so that they dont take Kannadiga’s for granted any more or something like that.
Namma current protest strategy is more inclined towards [c].
Naavu Kanndaigaru shathamanagalinda ella Punya Koti typoo,so for a change,[c] nalli ketta maja [sadistic pleasure,sorry swalpa urgent transalation may not be accurate] sig bahudu.Film stars mele swalpa pressure.Alli Illi Swalpa Rolloo.[Film Roll alla].
Facts and evidence namm hathra idhidre ee thara blog madtha iralilla, Navella beedhige ilidu protest madtha idhvi.Idhu Nyaya kodiso reethi alla swamy-Eevaga yaru traitoru?
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@Sridhar
Your argument is very apt.The issue in it’s present form does’nt demand a serious reaction at all or else we would’nt have fought at this level.And you are absolutely correct that there is no real cause but perhaps a ‘roll’ cause.
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Nagesh–
After Venkatagiri left us, HNN has been the only Gowda to know anything about our water and land problems. That is not to say one has to agree with everything he says.
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what an awesome teacher.
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Madakasira taluku appata kannada pradesha. idu sadya Andhradallide.
idannu karnatakakke serisikollalu yaaru horaatamadadiruvudu shochaneeya.
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Namaskaara,
Moadalu, nanjegowadrige abhinandanegalu, rajyadalli obba politician-gadru
namma nela,jalada bage mahiti ide. istella agthaiddru gana sarkara yen maadthaide, yavude vishaya bandru karanatakane yethakke solabeku, navugale bererajyadavarige yethakke thalebagisabeku.
iga ivugala bagge mrudu dorane thalidare muunde goa, maharastra, kerala, AP rajyagalu kooda ade haadi hidiyuttave. igagale e-yella rajyagala jothe thakaraaru ide…
ondu gatti dwani, dari karnatakakke torisuva nayakarilva?????
danyavaada
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Hogenekal Drinking Water project to be resolved scientifically and Legally
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The problem seems tobe viewed from two angles,one about the land aspect and another about the water aspect.
About the land ownership ,it is well settled in law that if land under the possession and enjoyment of any person for 12 years in the case of private property and 30 years in the case of Government property,the occupant gets title to the land under adverse possession.So,one can verify the details and settle the issues of ownership.
About the availability of water in Cauvery for allotment of about 1.5 TMC from Cauvery river flow out of 740TMC,it is not difficult to resolve the issue because according to Environmental Experts like Prof.T.Shivaji Rao,Director ,Gitam University,visakhapatnam,if both Karnataka and Tamilnadu implement cloud seeding operations,theannual water yield in Cauvery can be incraesed from 740 TMC to 900TMC and thereby agriculture and hydro-power generation can be very greatly benefitted.see web sites:
Click to access English-Book.pdf
http://www.indiawaterportal.org/blog/2007/11/16/cloud-seeding/
http://shivajirao.cloudseeding.googlepages.com/scienceofcloudseeding
http://video.vividas.com/media/4375_snowyhydro/web/
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-06-29-china-rain_x.htm
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