Mettur dam to be opened on June 12 for ‘kuruvai’ cultivation

With the water level standing at over 100 feet, sluices of the 89-year-old Stanley Reservoir in Mettur will be opened on the designated date of June 12 to enable farmers in the fertile Cauvery Delta Region to cultivate kuruvai (short-term) crops.

This is the third time in recent years that the dam is being opened on the set date without any delay. In 2022, the DMK government threw open the dam on May 24, much before the designated date set decades ago, due to enough availability of water at the reservoir.

At 3 pm on Wednesday, the dam’s water level stood at 103.630 feet, while the storage was 69.627 tmcft. The dam will be opened for kuruvai cultivation only if the storage level crosses 90 feet.

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The water released from June 12, which will reach the Delta districts in a week’s time, will be used for irrigating about 5 lakh acres of land. The reservoir has been getting inflow due to incessant and unseasonal rains in the catchment areas of River Cauvery in Karnataka.

Chief Minister M K Stalin, who will be at present at the Stanley Reservoir in Mettur when the gates are opened on June 12, is travelling to Tiruchirapalli, Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, and Nagapattinam districts on June 8 and 9 to take stock of the desilting works ahead of the release of water.

Desilting of water bodies is taken up every year in May and June to ensure the water travels smoothly and reaches tail-end areas too. The opening of the dam on time is good news for farmers who will hope to successfully cultivate kuruvai crop for the fifth consecutive year.

In 2022-2023, kuruvai cultivation was taken up in an area of 2.17 lakh hectare, which is the highest in 47 years, officials said, adding that the early release of water from Mettur dam will not just allow farmers to go for kuruvai but also allow them to prepare for samba (long-term crop) early and avoid them getting submerged in floods.

June 12 was set as the date for opening the dam keeping in mind the arrival of the southwest monsoon in Karnataka. However, the dam was not opened on the above mentioned several times due to a slew of factors, including a delay on the part of Karnataka in releasing water to the state.

The Cauvery Delta, which was used to seeing a three-crop formula – samba, kuruvai and thaladi – had come down to just one crop a year. Till about a decade ago, cultivation would take place in three seasons – Kuruvai (short-term crop) from June to September, Samba (long-term crop) from August to January and Thaladi from January to May – keeping the farmer busy for the whole year.

While the first two seasons primarily cultivated paddy, farmers utilised the third season to cultivate pulses for centuries together with the progressive farming community.