Hearing in the case related to sharing of Krishna waters by Telangana and Andhra Pradesh States was resumed by the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal, Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-II, in New Delhi on Wednesday, with counsel for AP A.K. Ganguli cross-examining Telangana’s witness K. Palanisami.
Methodology discussed
An agricultural economist by profession, Mr. Palanisami from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu was engaged by the Telangana Government to study the water requirements under several irrigation projects in the two States.
The cross-examination of Telangana’s witness by the AP counsel on the day-one revolved around the methodologies adopted in calculating the crop water estimation or irrigation water requirement.
Mr. Palanisami told the tribunal that he and a few scientists of State Agricultural University were also associated with his study and he also had discussions with scientists of Indian Institute of Rice Research (IIRR) and Central Research Institute of Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA), both located in Hyderabad, for the purpose of his exercise on crop water requirement.
The Telangana witness further told the tribunal, on being asked by the counsel for AP, that after examining 4 to 5 methods he along with his associates had agreed upon using the Penman Monteith Method for calculation of crop water requirement stating that the other methods were useful for micro environment in calculating evapo- transporation, the process by which water is transferred from the land to the atmosphere by evaporation from the soil and other surfaces and by transpiration from plants, as part of crop water requirement estimation.
Optimum use of water
He explained to the tribunal that his assignment was basically to work out crop water requirement based on scientific methodology and optimum utilisation of water. For the analysis, he had availed three sets of data – project-wise area, crop-related co-efficient and cropping pattern-cropped area provided by the Irrigation Department of Telangana.
During the hearing, Chief Engineer (Inter State Water Resources) S. Narasimha Rao and other officials of the Irrigation Department of Telangana were present.
