Ken River

• The Ken River is tributary of River Yamuna and flows through Bundelkhand region.
• It flows between Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
• The river originates near the village of Ahirgawan on the north-west slopes of Kaimur Range in the district of Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh.
• Ken Gharial Sanctuary and Panna National Park is located on the banks of the river Ken.

Betwa River

• Betwa is also a tributary of the Yamuna. The river originates in the Vindhya Range just north of Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh.
• Half of the river that is not traversable runs over the Malwa Plateau before breaking into the upland of Bundelkhand.
• Orchha Wildlife Sanctuary lies within the area through which Betwa River flows. 

What is Ken-Betwa Link Project? 

• Ken-Betwa Link Project that proposed to link the Ken River that flows through Panna in Madhya Pradesh, and the Betwa River that runs through central Madhya Pradesh and southern Uttar Pradesh. 
• The rationale was to augment water in the Betwa by linking it with the Ken, which, it was claimed, has surplus water. The proposal picked up momentum in the early 2000s, and was finally given environment clearance in 2017.
• In March 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi presided over the signing of a memorandum of agreement between the chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, which talks about the water distribution between the two States.

What will be the benefits of this project?

• According to the Union Jal Shakti Ministry, the project is expected 

1. To provide annual irrigation of 10.62 lakh hectares, 
2. Drinking water supply to about 62 lakh people and 
3. Generate 103 MW of hydropower.

What are its drawbacks?

• Ten villages near Daudhan dam are expected to be submerged, with over 10,000 people displaced
• The current cost of the Ken-Betwa project is ₹38,000 crore, and the contours of the ecological destruction that the project will wreak are clearer now: 

1. 9,000 ha of submergence, most of it in the Panna Tiger Reserve. 
2. 23 lakh trees with a girth of 20 cm or more are expected to be felled. 
3. The key wildlife species that will be affected include tigers, endangered vultures, mahseer fish, and gharials in the Ken Gharial Sanctuary.

• Most of the important geological sites are going to be affected either by submergence upstream of the proposed dam or would dry up when the full flow of the river is arrested by the proposed dam. 

Is River linking a feasible option?

Surplus-deficit claim

• • Whole of India’s river linking project lies in ‘surplus-deficit’ claim. 
  • But a scientific case for such a claim can be made only with an exhaustive assessment of all available options of water resource development in any basin or sub-basin, including rainwater harvesting, groundwater recharge, watershed development, protecting wetlands, forests, soil moisture, optimising existing storage infrastructure, sustainable cropping patterns, demand-side management, reuse and recycling of sewage, and so on. 
  • No such assessment has been made for any basin or sub-basin in India. 

• The equating of floods with surplus and drought with deficit is also fundamentally flawed because these could be seasonal phenomena.

What is a feasible option?

• Groundwater is and has been, at least for the last four decades, India’s water lifeline.
• Our water resources policy, plans, projects and practices should be about nurturing the groundwater.
• It may include identifying and protecting existing groundwater recharge mechanisms, enhancing recharge where feasible, installing artificial recharge where possible and necessary, and also regulating groundwater use at aquifer level.

References:

1. https://www.indianetzone.com/32/ken_river_indian_river.htm
2. https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-what-is-the-ken-betwa-link-project-7239885/
3. https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/the-ken-betwa-project-reflects-the-ill-conceived-rationale-behind-river-linking/article34335304.ece