Hyderabad: The Telangana govt on Wednesday released water from the Indira Priyadarshini Jurala Project to save standing crops, ending days of protests and uncertainty in erstwhile Mahbubnagar district, following assurances from Karnataka CM DK Shivakumar that they would release 3 tmcft of Krishna water in phases from Narayanpur reservoir.Sources told TOI that water could be released anytime this week from Narayanpur reservoir in Karnataka to Jurala in Telangana. But with farmers expressing concern over the fate of their crops, the govt decided not to wait for upstream releases and instead opened Jurala’s canals. The irrigation department had stopped canal releases a few weeks ago due to low reservoir levels caused by El Nino conditions and inadequate rainfall.Telangana irrigation officials said around 2,000 cusecs of water was released from Jurala on Wednesday. Of this, about 1,000 cusecs was let out through the right canal and 717 cusecs through the left canal. Water lifting has also begun at Nettampadu and other irrigation schemes to protect crops that are at a crucial stage. Officials said Jurala currently has 5.4 tmcft of water against its full capacity of 9 tmcft and is receiving inflows of about 2,500 cusecs from upstream areas.On Wednesday, Telangana ministers Jupally Krishna Rao and Vakiti Srihari met Shivakumar for the second consecutive day in Bengaluru. Shivakumar, who directed release of water from Narayanpur reservoir, told the ministers that Karnataka was responding positively despite water shortages keeping in view the interests of a large number of farmers.Srihari and Jupally said Shivakumar assured them that water would be released to Jurala in an “on-and-off” or on a ‘warabandi’ basis over a period of 10 days. The ‘warabandi’ system is a rotational water allocation method used in irrigation to distribute limited canal water fairly among farmers. The Narayanpur reservoir receives inflows from various sources, mainly from the Almatti damIn a post on X, CM Revanth later thanked his Karnataka counterpart: “On behalf of people of Telangana, I express my heartfelt thanks to Chief Minister of Karnataka, @DKShivakumar garu for honouring our request to release River Krishna waters for our state. This is a great example of bonhomie between two different states and showcases the love and brotherhood of people of India.”Karnataka is likely to issue a formal statement before releasing water, keeping in view the already ongoing dispute over water with Tamil Nadu. In 2019, Karnataka had released 2.5 tmcft to Telangana at the request of then CM K Chandrasekhar Rao.The state govt has urged Karnataka to release 5,000 cusecs of water a day for a month. Irrigation officials said such a release would help Telangana meet both irrigation and drinking water requirements in the Mahbubnagar region.According to the irrigation department, 25 tmcft of water is presently available in Narayanpur dam in Karnataka, while Almatti reservoir has around 120 tmcft. Officials noted that even if Karnataka agrees to release water immediately, it will take nearly two days for the flows to reach Jurala.BRS working president KT Rama Rao and former ministers T Harish Rao, S Niranjan Reddy and V Srinivas Goud said the govt released water only after sustained pressure from agitating farmers.
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