The witness of Telangana appearing before the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal over the allocation of water between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, K. Palanisami, has justified that the requirement of water for puddling (land/soil preparation) in the Krishna Delta System (KDS) is 150 mm against 200 mm, as being claimed by AP and approved by the Central Water Commission (CWC).
During his cross-examination that continued on the fourth day on Thursday by senior advocate for AP R. Venkataramani, Mr. Palanisami explained as to why less water was needed for paddy crop in the puddling stage in KDS area.
He highlighted that in the project areas like KDS, where soils are alluvial/black, puddling was a practice that would minimise water loss. Not only that, the alluvial/black soils have higher water retention capacity, and would form a hard pan at 15 to 20 cm depth.
Stating that 75 mm water is applied for puddling before ploughing, he said 2 to 3 more water applications are made at the rate of 15 mm to 20 mm subsequently. However, under the current scenario of labour scarcity, machine puddling is done within a week’s time and it would minimise the water requirement for the purpose. Accordingly, 150 mm water is sufficient for puddling, Mr. Palanisami, a water management expert who worked with ICRISAT, explained.
Responding to Mr. Venkataramani’s poser that the witness’ suggestion of 150 mm water requirement for puddling in KDS would deny the 13 tmc ft water to the area, Mr. Palanisami said, quoting a report, that a majority of the soils in KDS were heavily textured with high moisture retention capacity, adding more water for puddling that would result only in waterlogging and salinisation of the soil, ultimately affecting the yield of paddy.
Chief Engineer (ISWR) Mohan Kumar, Superintending Engineer Koteshwar Rao, Executive Engineers Vijay Kumar, Raghunath Sharma and other engineers, advocates for Telangana K. Vaidyanathan, P. Ravinder Rao, Ramakrishna Reddy and Nikhil Swami were presented during cross-examination. The tribunal posted the next hearing in the case to April 18.
