Centre gives ecology clearance for major MP irrigation project

Implications for bigger river linking project not enough to delay approval

The Union environment ministry’s Statutory Appraisal Committee (SAC) has given a nod to the Rs 2,000-crore Kundaliya Major Irrigation Project in Madhya Pradesh, slated to also later form part of the Parbati-Kalisindh-Chambal (PKC) river linking project involving Rajasthan, too.

The Kundaliya project got forest clearance from the Centre in August. It is proposed to build a dam on the Kalisindh river in Rajgarh and Shajapur districts of MP. The state government proposed this as a standalone project but "is committed to make the Kundaliya Major Multipurpose project an integral part of the PKC link project, as and when it materialises,” states an Expert Appraisal Committee document.

The state government had written a letter to the Centre that “it has no objection if any change is required by the competent technical authority" for making Kundaliya a part of the PKC river link. The latter has been under consideration since 1991 and a feasibility report on it has been done.

What this means is that the government has been able to give an environmental nod for one part of a larger project without assessing the cumulative impact in entirety. With each arm of the larger project being taken up on a piecemeal basis, the environment ministry's SAC will be able to bypass the need to assess the overall impact of the full linking project.

The present government has been pushing to give a go-ahead to linking of rivers. The Union cabinet approved the Ken-Betwa river linking project in principle this July; it still awaits a nod from the environment ministry. The government has already moved to justify the Ken-Betwa project, though it impacts a large part of the Panna tiger reserve, inundating 6,000 hectares. A government agency, Wildlife Institute of India, is expected to recommend that the inundated area can be compensated by adding an additional forest patch that does not fall under the tiger reserve at present.