‘Ken-Betwa river-linking project will have severe consequences’
Water resources experts have raised concerns that the Ken-Betwa river-linking project will have severe hydrological and ecological consequences for the Bundelkhand region.
Analysis of the project's detailed project report indicates its primary objective is to supply water to the upper Betwa region, which falls outside Bundelkhand, rather than resolving Bundelkhand's own water scarcity.
Concerns raised include reduced downstream flow of the Ken river affecting drinking water and irrigation availability in Banda, Mahoba and Chhatarpur, along with large-scale deforestation from associated infrastructure.
The project, despite being termed "river linking," is technically a water transfer and lift scheme, since the Ken and Betwa basins are at different elevations and require pumping.
A Supreme Court-mandated statutory committee had earlier flagged the project's surplus-water assumptions as premature before full irrigation potential within the Ken basin itself was assessed.
Ken-Betwa Link Project — India's First River-Interlinking Project
The Ken-Betwa Link Project is the first project to be implemented under the National Perspective Plan (NPP) for interlinking of rivers, prepared by the Ministry of Water Resources (then the National Water Development Agency) in 1980. It involves transferring surplus water from the Ken river to the water-deficit Betwa river, both tributaries of the Yamuna, via a roughly 221-km link canal (including a tunnel section) and the Daudhan Dam.
Key Details
- A tripartite MoU for the project was signed in March 2021 between the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti and the state governments of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
- The Union Cabinet approved funding and implementation in December 2021, with a total assessed cost of about Rs 44,605 crore (2020-21 price level), including central assistance of roughly Rs 39,317 crore (grant plus loan).
- The project is intended to irrigate approximately 10.62 lakh hectares across Chhatarpur, Panna and Tikamgarh (Madhya Pradesh) and Banda, Mahoba and Jhansi (Uttar Pradesh).
- River interlinking as a national programme rests on Article 262 read with the River Boards Act, 1956 and the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956 — both enacted under Parliament's power to legislate on inter-state river disputes; notably, no river board has ever actually been constituted under the 1956 Act.
The expert critique centres on whether the "surplus" water calculated for transfer is real, or whether it comes at the cost of Bundelkhand's own long-term water security — a dispute over the very water-sharing assumptions Article 262 mechanisms are meant to arbitrate between states.
Daudhan Dam and Panna Tiger Reserve — Wildlife Protection Act, 1972
The project's core infrastructure, the Daudhan Dam, is located within the Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, requiring submergence of a substantial part of the reserve's core critical tiger habitat. Diversion of forest and wildlife habitat land for such projects is governed by the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, and requires clearance from the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the statutory body established under Section 38L of the WPA (as amended in 2006) to oversee tiger reserves.
Key Details
- Panna Tiger Reserve was designated a Project Tiger reserve in 1994; it comprises a core zone of roughly 576 sq km and a buffer of about 1,022 sq km (approx. 1,598 sq km total), and hosts tigers, leopards, gharials and vultures.
- Under the WPA framework, a core/critical tiger habitat is meant to be kept inviolate of human activity and diversion for non-forestry use, distinguishing it from the buffer zone where regulated activity is permitted.
- Submergence estimates associated with the Daudhan reservoir run into several thousand hectares of reserve forest, directly affecting core tiger habitat connectivity.
The ecological consequences flagged relate directly to this core-habitat submergence and the resulting fragmentation of a protected tiger landscape, which is separate from (but linked to) the downstream water-availability concerns raised for Bundelkhand's agricultural districts.
Central Empowered Committee (CEC) — Supreme Court's Forest and Wildlife Watchdog
The Central Empowered Committee is a body originally constituted by the Supreme Court in its order of 9 May 2002 in the T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad v. Union of India case (the ongoing forest-conservation litigation since 1996), to monitor compliance with the Court's forest and wildlife protection orders. It was subsequently notified as a statutory body by the Central Government under Section 3(3) of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 (notification dated 17 September 2002).
Key Details
- The CEC reviews projects requiring forest, wildlife or protected-area diversion and submits appraisal reports to the Supreme Court and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
- In its assessment of the Ken-Betwa project, the CEC had held that projecting a transferrable water surplus from the Ken basin — without first exhausting irrigation potential within the upper Ken basin itself — was premature given the scale of public investment and forest loss involved.
- The CEC represents a rare instance of the Supreme Court delegating part of its monitoring function to a body with subsequent statutory backing, distinguishing it from purely departmental clearance bodies like the EAC/SEAC under the EIA process.
The current expert critique echoes the CEC's earlier institutional concern — that the project's justification rests on a surplus-water assumption not adequately tested against Bundelkhand's own irrigation needs.
- Ken-Betwa Link Canal length: approximately 221 km (including a roughly 2-km tunnel)
- Project cost: approximately Rs 44,605 crore at 2020-21 price levels; central support approximately Rs 39,317 crore
- Irrigation target: approximately 10.62 lakh hectares across six districts in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh
- Panna Tiger Reserve: declared 1994; core approx. 576 sq km, buffer approx. 1,022 sq km
- CEC constituted: 9 May 2002 (Supreme Court order); notified under EPA Section 3(3) on 17 September 2002
- Governing constitutional provision for inter-state river disputes: Article 262