India, July 31 -- Two July, one river.

On July 27, 2025, the Stanley Reservoir at Mettur, in Tamil Nadu's Salem district, stood at 103 ft against a full level of 120 ft. Storage had climbed from 50 ft to 103 ft in ten days. The Cauvery was in spate. Salem's low-lying villages were being evacuated. Karnataka had opened the Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) and Kabini dams after both filled to the brim, and 1.40 lakh cusecs were crossing the inter-state gauge at Biligundlu on the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border.

That year, Mettur touched full capacity on seven separate occasions, news reports at the time said. Tamil Nadu received 317.28 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) of water at Biligundlu by December - 140.03 tmcft more than its 177.25 tmcft annu...