Murali's Writeups...

The Case for the RasiManal Joint Project in the Cauvery River: Some Reflections 1. This year, 2026, is an El Niño year, which will be hotter and drier. I updated this blog on 26 September 2026. Most of the dams in Karnataka are not full. The water levels do not correspond to the water levels recorded during the last few years. This year is undoubtedly a deficit year. The KRS, which is the most important reservoir in Karnataka in the Cauvery basin, is not full. Many of the tributaries of the Cauvery located in Karnataka have their own dams. Some of them have comfortable storage capacity, though by no means can this be described as full capacity. There is one more monsoon to come. Hopefully, the North East Monsoon will make up for much of the deficit experienced during the southwest monsoon. Mercifully, the political temperature levels in these two states and mutual hostility did not rise as much as they did in previous deficit years. One must also give credit to the statesmanship of th...

  Nepal's Claim for Reparation from the USA, China, and India for the 2026 Glacial Dam Outburst in the Himalayas 1. Recently, Nepal, one of the less-developed, carbon-neutral countries, surprised the world by claiming that the USA, China, and India are responsible for its glacial burst sufferings. It made a claim for more than USD 10 billion on the grounds that these countries are among the biggest emitters of ‘ greenhouse gases' , which aggravate global warming, which is the main cause of glacial lake outbursts. I sympathise with Nepal. But sympathy is irrelevant when evaluating a legal claim based on international law of state responsibility. Nepal believes that the law relating to global warming and climate change imposes costs and obligations on all international actors. The purpose of this blog is to chronicle the legal developments in this field and provide some unsolicited legal advice to Nepal so that, in the future, countries can base their claims on a stronger legal ...

  Conflict in South Asia and India options 1. When India was born as a free nation, it also inherited a new neighbouring country that became its perpetual enemy. With Pakistan, India has had at least five recognised armed conflicts. The first was the Kashmir invasion by irregulars supported by the newly formed Pakistani state. The second was the 1965 war. The third was the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. Thereafter, we had the Kargil crisis (the fourth), which was nothing short of a war, although it was not fought on all fronts. More recently, we also had Operation Sindhur 1.0. According to the press release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defence of India, Operation Sindhur 1.0 is not over. It has only been kept in abeyance at the request of Pakistan. Pakistan claimed that it was the prodding by Mr. Donald Trump that compelled India to accept a cessation of hostilities between the two countries. India, on the other hand, maintains that it was Pakistan that w...

  Global Energy Crisis: Some Reflections. 1.   The Russia-Ukraine conflict has now been going on for more than four years. Russia currently occupies approximately 20% of Ukrainian territory. The Russian occupation of Ukrainian territories, including Crimea, employed the unlawful use of force. Hence, it is not legal. The rest of Europe has not yet legitimised Russian occupation of Ukraine's territory. But if you ask whether Russia has won the war, the answer is no. Russia has not won the war, even though it is in illegal occupation of approximately 20% of Ukrainian territory. But Ukraine cannot be declared as the winner in the war. “In fact, both are losers!” Russia is losing anywhere between 500 million and 1 billion US dollars every day in conducting this war. The Russia-Ukraine conflict is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. It will continue so long as Europe has the political will and economic power to provide Ukraine with the type of support that the later has b...