Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal

The Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal is an Indian tribunal that adjudicates disputes over the use of Krishna River water among the basin states. The Government of India constituted a common tribunal on 10 April 1969 under the Interstate River Water Disputes Act of 1956 to decide river water disputes among the states of the Krishna and Godavari basins. It was headed by R. S. Bachawat as chairman, with D. M. Bhandari and D. M. Sen as members. Because Maharashtra, Karnataka and the old Andhra Pradesh wanted a quicker verdict to build irrigation projects, the Krishna proceedings were taken up first and separately, and the tribunal submitted its final verdict to the Government of India on 27 May 1976. The Krishna is the second largest river of peninsular India, rising near Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra and flowing about 1,300 kilometres in its final stretch before reaching the Bay of Bengal. Its basin covers 257,000 square kilometres, shared by Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.