paragraph on cauvery water dispute
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The Cauvery River, the sacred Ganga of the South rises from the Talakaveri in the Brahmagiri hills of the Western Ghats and traversing through the states of Karnataka (Mysore) and Tamil Nadu (Chennai) finally discharges its waters into the Bay of Bengal near Cauvery-Patnam.
Its important tributaries include Hemavati, Laksamanatirtha, Kabbani, Suvarnavati, Yagchi (in Karnataka State), Bhavani, Amravati and Noyil (in Kerala and Tamilnadu states). The river has a total length of 805 km, and a drainage area of 80,290 km2.
The Cauvery is acclaimed as one of the best- regulated rivers of the country whose 90-95 per cent of the flow is utilised for irrigation29 (1.0 million hectares) and hydel power generation bringing wealth and prosperity to its entire basin area. Prosperous towns line the banks of the river. It forms a number of waterfalls, rapids and cascades providing cheap sources of hydroelectricity and narrow gorges for constructing dams and reservoirs. It is because of these benefits that a dispute arose between Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala for the sharing of its waters. Initially, the dispute was confined to Karnataka (during the last part of the 19th century) but later on Kerala also joined the contesting parties. Though river draws its 75 per cent of waters from Karnataka, its major part of the basin area (57.8 percent) lies. In Tamil Nadu where a number of irrigation schemes are utilizing its waters since olden days. Hence Tamil Nadu objected to the construction of Krishnaraja Sagar Dam in the upper reaches, for that may reduce the river's flow and thus harm the existing irrigation and power projects.
Though agreements were reached between the two states in 1892 and 1924 but rival claims persisted till a final agreement was reached on August 27, 1976 with the assistance of the Union Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation under which a Cauvery Valley Authority has been formed to administer the existing projects and sanction new ones for the all-round development of the entire basin area of the river.
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