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Rising in the Varushanad Hills of western Tamil
Nadu, Vaigai River initially flows northeast through the Kambam and
Varushanad valleys. In its central it flows eastward into the Vaigai
reservoir at Narasingapuram. Near Sholavandan it bends to the southeast,
passing Madurai town on its course to its mouth on Palk Strait, which
separates the southeast coast of India from Sri Lanka.
The Vaigai River rarely floods and its chief tributaries are the
Siruliar, Theniar, Varaha Nadi, and Mangalar. It flows through a length of
150 miles (240-km), generally southeast.
The Vaigai River basin (indicating agricultural areas) in Tamil Nadu has
an area of 7,000-sq-km where current (and projected) supplies of surface
and groundwater are not deemed sufficient to meet current (and projected)
needs. In 1985 a tunnel diverted waters from the Periyar River in Kerala
under a contentious 999-year agreement between Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
The western and northwestern parts of the basin receive heavy rainfall
during the monsoons, with an average rainfall of 850mm over the basin. The
land use is predominantly agricultural (consuming about 3,800 MCM of water
annually), with paddy as the primary crop. There are significant
water-sharing conflicts within agriculture itself, with the various
agricultural areas competing for scarce water supplies.
