KEN BETWA RIVER LINKAGE - GEOGRAPHY
News: Explained
| What ails the Ken-Betwa River link project?
What's in the news?
● On
January 18, the Steering Committee of the Ken-Betwa Link Project (KBLP) held
its third meeting in New Delhi.
● It
was chaired by the Secretary of the
Department of Water Resources, in the Ministry of Jal Shakti, who reiterated
that KBLP was a “flagship” project of
the national government and that it “is critical for the water security and socio-economic development of
Bundelkhand region”.
Key takeaways:
● In
December 2021, the Union Cabinet approved KBLP at a total cost of Rs 44,605 crore.
● In
this project, the national and the Madhya Pradesh governments will link the Ken river with the Betwa river
so that the latter can water the Bundelkhand region in Uttar Pradesh.
What is the Ken-Betwa link?
● The
Ken-Betwa Link Project is the first project under the National Perspective Plan
(NPP) for the interlinking of rivers.
○ Both these rivers are
tributaries of river Yamuna.
● This
will be done through the construction of the Dhaudan Dam and a 221 km-long
canal.
● The
project involves the transfer of surplus
water from the Ken river in Panna district in Madhya Pradesh to the Betwa river
in Uttar Pradesh.
Significance:
● The
national government has said that the dam will generate 103 MW of hydroelectric power.
● The
linking canal will flow through Chhatarpur, Tikamgarh and Jhansi districts,
with the project expected to irrigate
6.3 lakh hectares of land every year.
Issues:
● Hydrological
and ecological experts aren’t convinced, however, mainly because the
government’s plan is based on a ‘surplus
and deficit’ model that they have said has little basis in science.
● Panna
is exceptional tiger habitat because of its deep gorges, which will be drowned
if the new dam is built.
● The
Ken-Betwa River Inter-Linking Project will submerge
55.78 sq km of the Panna tiger reserve. It also involves diversion of
around 6,000 hectares of forests, mostly from the Panna tiger reserve.
● The
proposed dam have a destructive impact on the flow of water in and outside of
the Ken Gharial Sanctuary - created to protect the critically endangered
Gangetic gharial (Gavialis gangeticus). (Located downstream of the
Panna National Park).
Go back to basics:
Ken River:
● The
Ken River flows through two states, Madhya
Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, and is one of the major rivers in the
Bundelkhand region of central India.
● It
flows into the Yamuna as a tributary.
● Panna National Park is
bisected by the Ken River.
Betwa River:
● The
Betwa rises in the Vindhya Range just north of Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh
and flows northeast through Madhya
Pradesh and Orchha to Uttar Pradesh.
● It
is a tributary of Yamuna River.
Panna National Park:
● It
is a national park located in Panna and Chhatarpur districts of Madhya Pradesh
in India.
● It
was declared in 1994 as the twenty-second
Tiger reserve of India and the fifth in Madhya Pradesh.
● Panna
was given the Award of Excellence in 2007 as the best maintained national park
of India by the Ministry of Tourism of India.
● Among
the animals found here are the tiger, leopard, chital, chinkara, nilgai,
sambhar and sloth bear.