Irrigation is the sine-qua-non for increasing productivity of land. Among he four sources of irrigation, tank irrigation is widespread in South India, where nearly 60% of net irrigated area is served by tanks. Tanks are the Iifc-Iinc for recharging several millions of wells allover the country. However, in recent decades its importance has been declining due to various reasons. One of the main reasons found for this decline is less active/ defunct functioning of institutions allover the country, especially in Tamil Nadu. Consequently, the area under tank irrigation in Tamil Nadu declined from 9.11akh ha (20.5% of NIA) in the 1960s to 4.51akh ha (15.6%) in the early 2010s. To corroborate the evidence, a study was undertaken in two major system tanks, irrigating 32 villages, served by the Palar Anicut System in Tamil Nadu. The book focuses on: * The structure and functioning of the managements of selected tanks such as Kaveripakkam and Dusi-Mamandur in Tamil Nadu. * The roles of the PWD, tank level organisation, and the villages and the inter-relations between them. * The characteristics of water supply and distribution networks. * The criteria by which water releases are regulated by the functionaries; and * The combined impact of all these on the availability of water and productivity in different segments of the command.