Bengaluru, 29 July

Several sporadic protests were held across Karnataka against the CWRC's direction to Karnataka to release 3,500 cusecs of Cauvery water daily for 15 days to neighbouring Tamil Nadu. 

The demonstrators, comprising of pro-Kannada factions and farmers, declared that Karnataka could not spare “even a drop” of water amid concerns over drinking water availability. 

In Mysuru, hundreds of farmers, including members of the Karnataka State Sugarcane Growers Association protested outside the Mysuru City Corporation office. 

As traffic ground to a halt, they performed ‘urulu seve’, a symbolic form of civil disobedience in Karnataka where people roll on the ground—mimicking a traditional temple ritual—to shame authorities. 

The protesters alleged that if the Karnataka government released the water to Tamil Nadu, it would be a “death knell” to farmers of the of the Cauvery river basin districts - Mysuru, Mandya, Chamarajanagar and Bengaluru. 

Sporadic protests were also held in Mandya, where the KRS dam is. 

Meanwhile, in Bengaluru, members of a faction of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV) and other pro-Kannada organisations protested near the Kuvempu statue in Malleswaram. They carried empty pots on their heads and raised slogans against the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee’s (CWRC) order.

Police erected barricades, deployed BMTC buses and detained several protesters before shifting them from the venue.