Major reservoirs in Tamil Nadu 71% full; Karnataka supplies surplus

CHENNAI: The northeast monsoon may start in Tamil Nadu only after October 25. While the forecast for northern districts is normal, it is below normal for the southern region. Major reservoirs in the state, however, have a combined storage of 140.46tmcft as on Thursday as against a capacity of 198tmcft.
Owing to repeated system formation in the Bay of Bengal, there are westerlies over Tamil Nadu, South Andhra Pradesh, South Karnataka and Kerala. Southwest monsoon has not fully withdrawn till date, said S Balachandran, deputy director general of meteorology. The southwest monsoon brought 24% excess rainfall to the state until September. Tirupur, Theni, Karur, Perambalur, Trichy and Coimbatore districts received very high rainfall and 18 districts received high rainfall, whereas Villupuram and Tuticorin recorded very low rainfall.

There are no major concerns as regards irrigation commitments because Mettur reservoir has touched 100ft for the second time this year. On Thursday, the inflow was 14,947 cusecs and outflow was maintained at 14,000 cusecs in the river and 900 cusecs in the canal. Bhavanisagar and Amaravathi in Cauvery basin too received good inflows and are at comfortable positions. Mullaperiyar, owned and maintained by Tamil Nadu government in Idukki district of Kerala, has a storage of 4.3tmcft as against 10.5tmcft capacity. It had an inflow of 4,157 cusecs on Thursday. The rise in storage will benefit five southern districts. The PWD released 1,400 cusecs into tunnels to Vaigai dam in the downstream. The storage of Papanasam and Manimuthar in Tirunelveli is steadily increasing with inflow of 5,940 cusecs and 1,464 cusecs respectively.
Heavy rains lashing Kanyakumari district have triggered an inflow of 3,169 cusecs and 2,474 cusecs into Pechiparai and Perunchani dams. Parambikulam-Aliyar group of dams in the Western Ghats have reached full capacity. “Owing to heavy rains triggered by the southwest monsoon, Karnataka released 6tmcft of surplus water to Tamil Nadu during the current water season beginning June 1. Tamil Nadu has realized surplus water in the months of August and September. In October alone, it realized 9tmcft surplus until October 13,” a senior official said. The quantity prescribed as per the final order of the Supreme Court is 131.6tmcft from June 1 to October 13, but the state realised 137.82tmcft of Cauvery water. According to the agriculture department, 10.038 lakh acres have been covered by paddy until Monday as against the normal area of 18.8 lakh acres in nine Cauvery basin districts.