Tamil Nadu on Monday challenged the final award of Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal, claiming that it had unjustifiably reduced the existing irrigation area from 28.21 lakhs acres prior to 1974 to 24.7 lakh while raising Karnataka’s share from 6.82 lakh acres in 1972, and 10.2 lakh acres in 1990, to 18.85 lakh acres.

“The Tribunal Award by adopting a system efficiency of 65 per cent for Tamil Nadu has resulted in gross injustice by drastically reducing the crop water requirement in one stroke by as much as 25 tmcft  ft,” it said in a written submission.

The state claimed that the irrigation requirement of paddy for the area considered by the tribunal at 60 per cent efficiency was 322 tmcft as against 297 tmcft estimated in the final order of February 2007.

The apex court is likely to take up in third week of January the civil appeal filed by different state governments, challenging the tribunal’s order.

In its submission, Tamil Nadu said that an additional area of 3.412 lakh acres was to be permitted, and an additional requirement of about 72 tmcft was to be provided to meet and sustain the irrigation operations in respect of the existing irrigation as on 1974.