Farmers hit the streets in protest against CWRC’s direction to release water to Tamil Nadu

Published 29 July 2026 · local

Farmers took to the streets in Mysuru and Mandya on Wednesday to voice their opposition to any move to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu

Farmers took to the streets in Mysuru and Mandya on Wednesday to voice their opposition to any move to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu as per the directions of the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC). While farmers’ outfits and Kannada organisations staged demonstrations at Sanjay Circle in Mandya, blocking the old Bengaluru-Mysuru highway, activists belonging to various farmers’ outfits held demonstrations at multiple locations in Mysuru. Members of the State Sugarcane Growers’ Association staged a road blockade on the Mysuru-Ooty national highway in Mysuru, demanding that the State government file a review petition against the order. Raising slogans such as “Kabini and Cauvery belong to us”, “Don’t release water”, and “Our struggle is for water”, the protesters blocked the highway for some time.

Ignoring police warnings, the farmers expressed their anger by carrying empty pots and wearing black bands on their arms. Several vehicles were stranded on the highway as a result. In another protest, farmers led by Federation of Karnataka Farmers’ Associations chief Hallikerehundi Bhagyaraj, who gathered outside the office of Command Area Development Authority (CADA) in Mysuru, blocked the Sayyaji Rao Road in the city for some time. Activists performed ‘Urulu Seve’ on the road to oppose any move to release water from the reservoirs of Cauvery basin. Farmers belonging to Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) gathered near Mahatma Gandhi’s bust outside the Mysuru court complex ahd staged a dharna. Meanwhile, State president Kurubur Shanthakumar, who led the protestors at the road blockade on Mysuru-Ooty Road, alleged that Water Resources Minister Ramalinga Reddy had failed to effectively present the ground realities and the problems faced by farmers in the Cauvery command area before the CWRC.

He demanded that the State government file a review petition and insisted that under no circumstances should water be released to Tamil Nadu. If the government proceeded with the release, he warned that farmers and various organisations in the Cauvery basin would “teach the government a fitting lesson.” Shanthakumar also criticised Minister for Large and Medium Industries M.B. Patil for reportedly stating that Karnataka would have to release water. He pointed out that the current storage in the major Cauvery basin reservoirs — Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS), Kabini, Harangi and Hemavati —was sufficient only to meet Karnataka’s drinking water requirements and to protect standing crops. With cities such as Bengaluru, Mysuru and Mandya, along with numerous towns and villages dependent on Cauvery water, he questioned how the State could afford to release water to Tamil Nadu.