Neyyar water sharing: From cooperation to friction between Tamil Nadu and Kerala
This article explores the historical water-sharing relationship between Kerala and Tamil Nadu regarding the Neyyar irrigation project. It highlights how a once-cooperative arrangement established in the 1950s has devolved into a long-standing legal dispute over water rights.
Why it matters
It illustrates the complexities of inter-state resource management and the potential for political friction to disrupt long-standing infrastructure agreements.
Post-independence, there have been several instances of one State blaming another in times of water shortage for the violation of an inter-State water-sharing compact. But what is less known is that Kerala provided water from its southernmost river, the Neyyar, to Tamil Nadu without any formal and written agreement for over 40 years. It was only an understanding that sustained the water supply for irrigation requirements of the Vilavancode taluk of the Kanniyakumari district, which was a part of the erstwhile Travancore-Cochin (TC) State till 1956.
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