The south Indian state of Karnataka, which came out the loser in a ruling this week on a century-old water dispute, plans to fight the water tribunal's decision, reports said Thursday. The state where the Cauvery river originates had demanded rights to more than half of its estimated 740 billion cubic feet of water, but was ordered to use only a third, and to release much of the rest to its neighbour, Tamil Nadu.

"The allocation of 270 billion cubic feet of water given by the tribunal is insufficient," state water resource minister K.S. Eswarappa told the Karnataka assembly, according to a report in the Indian Express Thursday.

Tamil Nadu state was awarded 419 billion cubic feet of the river's water in the ruling that came after 17 years of often bitter deliberations.

"The government is still committed to filing a review petition before the tribunal," the water minister said.

Monday's decision prompted the state to go on high alert, fearing a repetition of deadly riots that broke out over an unfavourable decision on the river in 1991.

Local leaders also fear the new ruling could see the capital Bangalore — an IT hub where many Indian and foreign technology firms are located — suffer a drinking water shortage, the Indian Express report said.

The Cauvery river rises in Karnataka and flows into the Bay of Bengal through Tamil Nadu.

Its waters — fed by India's annual June to September monsoon rains — irrigate crops and provide drinking supplies to Karnataka and Tamil Nadu states, as well as neighbouring Kerala and Pondicherry.

The modern dispute began in 1974, when an agreement inked in 1892 on the sharing of the waters lapsed.

That was the year when the British Madras presidency (now Tamil Nadu) forced the Maharaja-ruled Mysore (modern Karnataka) not to use the Cauvery waters without its permission.

The bickering has continued ever since then, with the two states repeatedly resorting to legal action to win a bigger share of the waters.

A 1991 interim court order telling Karnataka to release 205 billion cubic feet of water to Tamil Nadu sparked riots against minority Tamils in Bangalore, leaving about 20 people dead.

Source: Agence France-Presse