• The National Green Tribunal has constituted a committee to submit a report on alleged violation of norms in the construction of a reservoir across the Cauvery river at Mekedatu in Karnataka.
• The NGT Southern bench, comprising Justice K Ramakrishnan and expert member K Satyagopal, issued notices to the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Department of Water Resources, Central Water Commission, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu governments and among others.
• The direction came after taking suo motu (on its own) cognisance of a newspaper report that Karnataka proposes to construct a dam across the Cauvery river in the area and that the proposal was deferred by the Cauvery Water Management Authority twice in the past following strong opposition from the Tamil Nadu government citing the pendency of case before the Supreme Court.
• Senior members of Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Limited; Integrated Regional Office of MoEF, Bangalore and Cauvery Water Management Authority are members of the committee. 
• NGT has directed the committee to ask whether construction activity as alleged in newspaper report has been started before obtaining necessary clearance from Forest Department and MoEF under Forest Conservation Act and EIA Notification, 2006.

Mekedatu Project

• The project was approved by Karnataka in 2017. 
• Rs 9,000 crore worth project started was with the aim of storing and supplying drinking water for Bengaluru city.
• It will also generate 400 megawatts of power. It is undertaken at deep gorge situated at the confluence of river Cauvery and its tributary Arkavathi.
• Tamil Nadu opposes any proposed project in upper riparian unless it is approved by Supreme Court. Further, Karnataka started the project without the consent and clearance which goes against the final order of Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT).
• In the order, SC held- “no state can claim exclusive ownership to deprive other states of waters of inter-state rivers”.