With the Mettur storage being around 18 thousand million cubic feet (tmc ft), there seems to be little possibility of the authorities even considering the question of opening the dam’s shutters for irrigation on the scheduled date of June 12.
Given the situation, agricultural specialists have openly called upon farmers, who are dependent upon the Cauvery river for meeting their requirements, to skip raising paddy during the short-term kuruvai cultivation season and go for the long term samba only.
The present situation can change only in the event of very heavy rainfall in the Cauvery catchment in Kerala and Karnataka in the coming weeks to such an extent that Mettur witnesses a huge increase in its water level and realises 50 tmc ft more.
