Mysuru Kambala is facing opposition from farmer and social organisations, which have urged buffalo owners from Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts to withdraw from the event and asked the Karnataka government to cancel it because of the state’s drought conditions.
Representatives of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, Dalit Sangharsha Samithi and Parisarakkaagi Naavu made the appeal at a press conference, saying animals participating in the traditional race could suffer in the heat. They also questioned the use of large quantities of water for the event when farmers and residents are facing shortages.
A.T. Ramaswamy, president of Parisarakkaagi Naavu, said attention should instead be directed towards reducing the difficulties caused by the water crisis. He said the organisations were not opposed to Kambala as a traditional folk sport of Tulu Nadu, but argued that the event should be held after adequate rainfall.
Ramaswamy said drought conditions had affected more than 200 taluks in Karnataka and that groundwater levels were falling. He claimed that hundreds of villages were facing serious drinking-water shortages and questioned the need to use lakhs of litres of water for a sporting event during the crisis. The statements were reported by Prajavani.
The organisations also cited conditions in Mysuru district. According to figures presented by Ramaswamy, 2,928 of the district’s 2,991 lakes had dried up, while only 63 remained full because of canal water. He also said borewells within a 10-kilometre radius of Mysuru city had dried up and that water levels in the Cauvery, Kabini, Hemavathi and Harangi reservoirs had declined.
The dispute also includes an environmental concern over the location designated for the event. Badagalapura Nagendra, president of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, said the site had earlier been reserved for a park and contained trees, shrubs and habitats for small animals and birds. He alleged that more than 50 trees had been cut to prepare the venue and said the Forest Department had registered a first information report over the tree felling.
The organisations linked their opposition to broader criticism of the government’s drought response. Ramaswamy said the government had fixed crop-loss compensation at ₹2,500 for drought-affected farmers and described the amount as an insult. He said farmers planned to return ₹2,501 to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund after the compensation was deposited in their accounts.
The statements place the proposed Kambala event within a wider debate over how public authorities should allocate water and manage land during a drought. The government’s response to the demand for cancellation, and the status of the environmental case concerning the venue, remain the next developments to watch.
