Protests over Ken-Betwa river link project resume in Madhya Pradesh
A protest by displaced residents, most of them women, has resumed on the banks of the Barana river near Kupi village in Madhya Pradesh, entering its fifth day.
Protestors are demonstrating against inadequate rehabilitation and compensation linked to land acquisition for the Ken-Betwa Link Project (KBLP), India's first river-interlinking scheme under implementation.
The demonstration follows earlier rounds of protest by families affected by submergence and land acquisition in the project's command and dam-construction area, part of which falls within the Panna Tiger Reserve.
The episode has renewed public attention on the environmental clearance conditions, forest-land diversion, and resettlement obligations attached to the project.
National Perspective Plan (NPP) and River Interlinking
The National Perspective Plan, prepared in August 1980 by the Ministry of Irrigation (now Jal Shakti) and the Central Water Commission, is the umbrella framework for transferring water from "surplus" river basins to "deficit" basins across India. It has two components: the Himalayan Rivers Development Component (14 links) and the Peninsular Rivers Development Component (16 links). The National Water Development Agency (NWDA), set up in 1982, prepares feasibility and detailed project reports for these links.
Key Details
- NPP formulated: August 1980; NWDA established: 1982 as an autonomous society under the Ministry of Jal Shakti.
- 30 links identified nationally (16 peninsular + 14 Himalayan component).
- The Ken-Betwa Link is the first of these 30 links to reach the implementation stage.
The protests concern the ground-level implementation of the very first NPP link to move from planning to construction, making it a test case for how river-interlinking projects will handle displacement and ecological trade-offs nationwide.
Ken-Betwa Link Project: Design and Institutional Mechanism
The KBLP connects the Ken river (Madhya Pradesh) to the Betwa river (Uttar Pradesh), both tributaries of the Yamuna draining the drought-prone Bundelkhand plateau. It involves the Daudhan dam on the Ken river inside Panna Tiger Reserve and a roughly 230-km link canal to transfer "surplus" Ken water to the water-deficit Betwa basin for irrigation, drinking water, and hydropower. The project received Cabinet approval in December 2021 and its foundation stone was laid on 25 December 2021 (National Good Governance Day) at Khajuraho.
Key Details
- Approved cost: about ₹44,605 crore (2020-21 price level), with central assistance of roughly ₹39,317 crore; implemented through the Ken-Betwa Link Project Authority (KBLPA).
- Envisaged to irrigate roughly 10-11 lakh hectares (mostly in Bundelkhand region of MP and UP) and supply drinking water to millions, besides generating hydropower.
- Implementing states: Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, with the Union government as the coordinating and majority-funding authority — an example of Centre-state cooperative federalism on an inter-state river matter (Entry 17, State List, subject to Union control under Entry 56, Union List, and Article 262 for inter-state river disputes).
The land acquisition and submergence caused by the Daudhan dam and canal network are the direct trigger for the ongoing protests over resettlement and compensation near Kupi village.
Environmental Clearance, Forest Diversion, and the Panna Tiger Reserve
The Daudhan dam submerges a significant portion of the core critical tiger habitat of Panna Tiger Reserve, a Project Tiger reserve since 1994-95. Because the project diverts forest land and affects a protected area, it required clearances under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (via the National Board for Wildlife, NBWL), and the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. The NBWL granted in-principle wildlife clearance in August 2016, subject to conditions including compensatory afforestation and creation of additional buffer/corridor habitat for tigers, and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has separately examined the extent of tiger habitat loss from submergence.
Key Details
- Panna Tiger Reserve submergence area from the Daudhan dam reservoir is estimated at roughly 6,000-9,000 hectares of forest land, including core tiger habitat.
- Clearances involved: Forest Advisory Committee (Stage-I forest clearance), NBWL wildlife clearance, and Environmental Clearance from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).
- Compensatory measures required include afforestation, a wildlife/tiger corridor, and a Tiger Conservation Plan to offset habitat fragmentation.
Protestors' grievances link directly to this diversion of forest and reserve land — displacement of forest-dwelling and tribal families living within or adjacent to the submergence zone that clearance conditions were meant to address through rehabilitation.
Forest Rights Act and Rehabilitation Framework for Displaced Communities
Communities living inside or around tiger reserves, many of them Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers, are entitled to recognition and protection of rights under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA). Relocation from critical tiger habitat is governed by Section 38V of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, which requires it to be either voluntary or based on a resettlement package with free, informed consent of the Gram Sabha, and rehabilitation is meant to follow the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (LARR Act) for non-forest land acquisition.
Key Details
- FRA, 2006 recognises individual and community forest rights of tribal and traditional forest-dwelling communities, and requires Gram Sabha consent before diversion of forest land for non-forest use in many cases.
- Section 38V, Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 lays down conditions for relocating people out of critical tiger habitat, including provision of alternate land or a one-time cash package.
- LARR Act, 2013 mandates a Social Impact Assessment and rehabilitation-and-resettlement (R&R) entitlements for project-affected families.
The core of the current protest — allegations of unfulfilled compensation and rehabilitation assurances — is precisely the implementation gap between these statutory entitlements and ground-level delivery for families displaced by the Daudhan dam and canal works.
- The Ken-Betwa Link Project is India's first operational river-interlinking project under the National Perspective Plan (1980).
- Approved project cost: approximately ₹44,605 crore; foundation stone laid on 25 December 2021 at Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh.
- The Daudhan dam is being built on the Ken river within Panna Tiger Reserve, submerging thousands of hectares of core tiger habitat.
- NBWL granted wildlife clearance to the project in August 2016; Panna Tiger Reserve was notified in 1994-95 under Project Tiger (launched 1973).
- The project aims to irrigate roughly 10-11 lakh hectares across the drought-prone Bundelkhand region spanning Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.