FOUR-SIDED WAR FOR KRISHNA WATERS

A new conflict looms as Karnataka moves to raise Almatti dam's height. Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra fume

- Ajay Sukumaran

THERE'S NOTHING LIKE WATER TO DIVIDE LAND—or its territory-minded masters. A mere scan of India’s hydrological wars would suffice to nail that axiom. The latest river to come to a boil is the Krishna. It’s a quadrangular war, since the 1,400-km-long river—the second longest in south India—flows through Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The contentious piece: the Almatti dam in north Karnataka, which hosts the state's largest reservoir. More than 20 years after it was commissioned, the Karnataka cabinet has cleared a proposal to raise the dam’s height in order to capture more of the river’s flow.