Tamil Nadu appoints special officers to monitor desilting work in Cauvery Delta

With farmers hoping that sluices of the Stanley Reservoir in Mettur will be opened for the cultivation of kuruvai (short-term) crop on June 12 for the second consecutive year, the Tamil Nadu government has named senior officers to monitor desilting work in the fertile Cauvery Delta region.

Water from the 88-year-old reservoir in Mettur in Salem district is usually opened on June 12, the date was set keeping in mind the arrival of monsoon in Karnataka. However, the non-release of water from Karnataka dams on time prevented the state government from opening the dam on the designated date from 2012 to 2019. In 2020, the gates were thrown open in June for the first time since 2011.

With the water level at over 90 feet, farmers are expecting that the gates of the dam will be opened on June 12 so that they can go for the cultivation of the short-term crop. The farmers placed their demand before Water Resources Minister Durai Murugan at a consultative meeting held last week. In an order, chief secretary V Irai Anbu said the desilting work in eight districts – Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Mayiladuthurai, Pudukkottai, Tiruchirapalli, Karur, and Ariyalur – will be carried out at a cost of Rs 65 crore. The desilting of tanks and other water bodies is carried out before the water is released from the Mettur dam.

The order said IAS officers Pradeep Yadav, K Gopal, Apoorva, and R Kirlosh Kumar will oversee desilting works in Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, and Mayiladuthurai districts respectively. Ramesh Chand Meena, C Vijayaraj Kumar, Shambhu Kallolikar, and Reeta Harish Thakar will continue to oversee the work in Ariyalur, Karur, Pudukkottai, and Tiruchirappalli.

The Cauvery Delta, used to 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 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, the farmers utilised the third season to cultivate pulses for centuries together with the progressive farming community.