IR4 Environmental Field Trip

On Sunday 11th November IR4 travelled for an environmental field trip. We gained some interesting observations and came back questioning the resources of Tamil Nadu. For example, we have learnt that there is a water shortage in our state of Tamil Nadu due to neighboring Karnataka apparently restricting the supply.

The political situation over the water issues between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka goes back over 20 years and is heavily entrenched in Indian politics. The two major political parties in India, Congress and BJP have debated solutions to this issue over the years and despite a recent Supreme Court ruling for Karnataka to deliver 9tmc of water to Tamil Nadu the BJP party are challenging this ruling.  

We saw evidence of this at a water park which despite being on the doorstep of a huge dam was bone dry due to rainfall shortages.

However we observed that our village of Kannagre does not seem to have a water shortage, this was apparent whilst doing the household surveys. All in all the trip was a success as it was eye opening and interesting to learn about the economical and political background of our adopted home state.