Ken-Betwa river project: Balancing development with ecological concerns

India's ambitious river-linking plan faces criticism for environmental and human costs

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi laying the foundation stone for the “Ken-Betwa River Linking National Project” on December 25, a controversial project is off the ground 29 years after it was conceived. This is the first of 16 river-linking projects under a decades-old river-linking plan, which involves some Himalayan rivers. The Ken-Betwa project involves transferring “excess” water from the Ken river to the Betwa river, both tributaries of the Yamuna, via a 221-km link canal, including a 2-km tunnel. The project is expected to provide water to the traditionally parched and backward area of Bundelkhand, covering 13 districts of the two states. It is expected to provide annual irrigation of 1.062 million hectares, meet the drinking-water needs of 6.2 million people, and generate 103 Mw of hydro-power and 27 Mw of solar power. This enormous Rs 44,605 crore project will involve, in its first phase, building a dam, link canals and tunnels, and a power house. Though the developmental objectives of the project appear unexceptionable, the question that has been raised by a range of environmental groups over the years, including the Supreme Court’s Central Empowered Committee, is whether the human and environmental cost balances these gains.

 

The project will displace over 6,000 families, cause the felling of some 2.3 million trees, and, with the construction of the dam planned inside the park, submerge 98 square km of the Panna National Park, including 10 per cent of the core area. The disruptive human and ecological consequences of this environmental destruction are significant. The Panna Tiger Reserve has been one of the more heartening success stories of recent years with the successful reintroduction of tigers in 2009 after this big cat population had been wiped out due to poaching. There are now 70 tigers in the reserve, which also carries within it all the precious biodiversity — from, among others, vultures to the gharial, one of the most endangered freshwater crocodile species — that slows the consequences of climate change. The Ken, one of the least polluted of the Yamuna tributaries, is the park’s lifeline. Besides, the hydrology data to back the claim that the Ken has excess water has not been subject to public scrutiny.

 

The government’s motivation in sanctioning this massive infrastructure project may be understandable. But the prospect of bringing prosperity to one of India’s poorest and most drought-prone districts must be weighed against its ecological impact, which benefits no one in the long run. Recent amendments to environmental laws and rules such as decriminalising emission and pollution transgressions and exempting impact assessments and clearances on projects within 100 km of India’s borders — most of it in ecologically fragile territory — point to the key purpose of improving ease of development metrics. But there are also numerous cost-effective ways of balancing development and environmental concerns. It is worth noting that only India and China have river-linking projects; most other countries have found the costs of such ventures outweigh the benefits.

 

In the Ken-Betwa project, for example, various expert committees, including the government’s forest advisory committee, have pointed out alternative, decentralised, and cheaper ways of improving water availability, which have not been explored sufficiently. This would include rainwater harvesting, groundwater recharge through check dams, moisture conservation, reuse of water, treating polluted water, and demand-side measures. The government would do well to examine such solutions before splurging on high-visibility infrastructure projects that degrade India’s richly diverse environment.