M. Visvesvaraya (1860-1962), rightly called engineer-visionary, [as Chief Engineer of Mysore] came up with a proposal in October 1910 to build a reservoir, now called Krishnarajasagara (KRS). Eventually, in September 1911, an agreement was arrived at building a smaller reservoir of about 11.3 thousand million cubic feet (tmc) capacity in the initial phase of the dam project. But, friction developed immediately on the execution of the next phase of the project. As both Madras and Mysore had agreed for referring the matter to an arbitrator, the Government of India appointed Sir H.D. Griffin, Judge, High Court, Allahabad, as Arbitrator, who commenced his job in July 1913.
Griffin took less than a year to arrive at his award on what was then popularly called — Kannambadi Arbitration Case — and delivered his award on May 12, 1914. The takeaway of the award was the nod to the upper riparian State’s plan of constructing KRS with a full reservoir level of 124 ft and capacity of 41.5 tmc ft.
Madras, which had about 1.5 million acres of land under cultivation in its territory of the Cauvery delta, was naturally worried about possible adverse consequences of the KRS dam project and it sent its formal response to the Government of India (GoI) in April 1915.
