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An illustration with images showing Narendra Modi today, the Betwa river, a board at the Bhusour gate of the Panna Tiger Reserve
announcing the Ken-Betwa river interlinking project and a screengrab of a government video showing the project.

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Bengaluru: On December 25, prime minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the Ken-Betwa
river interlinking project at Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh. The project is one of the several developmental
projects that he inaugurated on the day, in honour of the 100th birth anniversary of former PM Atal Bihari
Vajpayee.

“Today, the foundation stone for the historic Ken-Betwa river interlinking project and the Dhaudhan Dam
has been laid,” said Modi, in his address after the inauguration.

He went on to launch a scathing attack on the governance of the Indian National Congress both at the
centre and state for previous terms before the BJP came to power, going as far as to blame the opposition
party for the lack of water that Bundelkhand witnesses – because the party never even thought of a
permanent solution for the water difficulties that people and farmers witness in the area.

Calling the interlinking of rivers a “mahaabhiyaan” (great campaign), Modi said that Madhya Pradesh is the
first state where this project – which will ensure water security – is being implemented.

“Water security is one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century,” he said. “In the 21st century, only that
nation, that state, which has sufficient water and ideal water management will be able to progress…I
consider it my duty to relieve the people of Madhya Pradesh of water stress.”

The past decade will be remembered in India’s history as an unprecedented decade of water security and
water conservation, Modi added. “In the decades to come, Madhya Pradesh will be among the top economies
of India. Here, Bundelkhand will play an important role. It will be of vital importance to build a viksit Bharat,
viksit Madhya Pradesh,” he said in his address on the day.

The main theory behind the Ken-Betwa interlinking project – which, according to the government, will
generate 103 megawatts of hydropower, 27 MW of solar power, bring drinking water to about 62 lakh people
and irrigate some 10.62 lakh hectares of land every year – is shockingly simple: construct a 230-km long
canal that will carry water from the River Ken in Madhya Pradesh and take its water to the River Betwa in
Uttar Pradesh.

The science is clear: interlinking is a bad idea

But nothing is that simple. Especially when a region’s ecology, environment and impacts on its people are
involved. As students of wildlife conservation, stalwarts taught us that ecology is a tough science: there are
a mind-boggling array of factors at play here, and these factors are not only hugely dynamic but also
interact with each other.

Take for instance, hydrology or the science of studying water movement which also includes water
underground, in rivers, river basins and their catchment areas. The fulcrum of the river interlinking project
rests on the assumption that there are “water-surplus” and “water-deficit” basins, and that diverting water
from the water-surplus area into the water-deficit one is very efficient because it addresses two things:
diverting the excess water that ‘goes to waste’ in the water-surplus basin, using this water instead to fill up
the water-deficit basin.

But this concept of water-surplus and water deficit systems is itself flawed, hydrologist Jagdish
Krishnaswamy has told this reporter when we have spoken about river interlinking several times. And
Krishnaswamy would know: he has been working on rivers and their flow, among other things, for more
than 30 years now.

No water ever goes to waste in natural systems, Krishnaswamy and other scientists write in this piece.
River water that people do not use flows downstream, sustaining numerous ecosystems – including other
people – in the process. In fact, the sediments that rivers bring to deltas (where they meet the sea) is
critical to enabling life and economies in these highly productive zones. Estuaries – the marginlands of
rivers and the sea – thrive with a huge diversity of fish; mangroves here also serve as nurseries that help
replenish fish stocks in these water bodies that fisherfolk depend on for both livelihood and sustenance. The
sediments that flowing rivers bring to the sea are also why we have natural beaches along India’s coast. So
rivers have to flow. They have to sweep into the sea. Damming them or diverting their water so that the
“water does not go to waste” reduces a river to a mere commodity, an object whose only role is to carry
water.

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Moreover, the government hasn’t released hydrological data to support its claim that Ken is a ‘surplus’ basin
and Betwa, a ‘deficit’ basin in the public domain, water expert Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator of the South
Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, told this reporter in 2021.

A recent study further drives home the fact that river interlinking is a terrible idea – because it could alter
the Indian summer rains and dry rivers in some seasons. The study, conducted by a team including climate
scientists at IIT Bombay and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology and published in September 2023
in the journal Nature Communications, examined how several land-based and atmospheric factors already
interacting with each other could change if river-interlinking on a large scale occurs. They found that
increased irrigation in new areas that these projects will bring about will reduce mean rainfall in September
by up to 12% in many parts of India that are already water-stressed (including parts of Rajasthan, Gujarat,
Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, Haryana and Uttarakhand). This reduced September rainfall, in turn, can
dry rivers during the post-monsoon season, thus “augmenting water stress across the country and
rendering interlinking dysfunctional”, they noted. Essentially, the hydrology of water basins are not
independent of each other: they are intricately connected.

Overriding concerns and laws

One chief concern about the Ken-Betwa project has been the issue of displacement of villagers. As per
some estimates, around 20 villages – nearly 6,000 families – will be displaced.

Another concern is the loss of at least 23 lakh trees in the Panna Tiger Reserve that the project will cause.
Experts have told this reporter that the forests here are a “hydrological asset” in the other-wise drought
stricken land: they help sequester water, making groundwater available in the area.

Scientists have also argued how the Ken-Betwa interlinking project involves constructing the ‘Daudhan
dam’ on the Ken river in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhatarpur district, inside the Panna Tiger Reserve will
submerge Critical Tiger Habitat – around 58 square kilometers of the core zone of the Reserve. Habitat
fragmentation and loss of connectivity caused by the project will also cause an indirect loss of another 105
sq km Critical Tiger Habitat. It’s ironic that Critical Tiger Habitat in a Park – where India’s national animal
went locally extinct by 2008-09, but was successfully reintroduced, and now has at least 60 of the big cats –
is going to be lost. A study in 2021 found that the lands that will be submerged in Panna are also highly
biodiverse areas: be it trees, other vegetation or ungulates such as the sambar (Rusa unicolor) that are
important prey for tigers and other carnivores in the area.
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A board at the Bhusour gate of the Panna Tiger Reserve announcing the Ken-Betwa river interlinking project. Photo: Veditum-
SANDRP

India has laws in place to prevent such ecologically disastrous schemes. But tragically, these too have been
ignored and bent to ensure that the Ken-Betwa interlinking project becomes a reality as it has today. These
include laws pertaining to wildlife clearance, environmental impact assessments, and more.

“Today the PM is giving one more evidence of the difference between his ‘talk’ and ‘walk’ on environment
and forest matters. The Ken-Betwa river linking project for which he is laying the foundation stone today
poses a serious threat to the biodiversity-rich Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh,” said senior
Congress leader and former environment minister Jairam Ramesh in a post on social media platform X on
December 25.

“The project will submerge over 10% of the core area of the tiger reserve. Not only prime tiger habitats –
but also those of other species like vultures – will be lost. The ecosystem will be bifurcated. More than 23
lakh trees are to be felled. Construction activities will be a severe disturbance. Three cement factories are
being planned, one already commissioned in the vicinity of the park. And there are questions on the basic
assumptions on surplus water itself. What is unfortunate is that there are alternatives for executing the
project (like locating the dam upstream) without causing such extensive ecological damage,” he added.

But according to Modi, the project has been envisioned by keeping in mind the creatures of Panna Tiger
Reserve.

“Over the last year, nearly two and a half lakhs of tourists visited Panna Tiger Reserve alone,” said Modi. “I
am happy that the link canal that will be built here will be done keeping the lives of the creatures of Panna
Tiger Reserve in mind.”

The interlinking of the Ken and Betwa will be the first nail in the coffin as far as interlinking of rivers and
river basins in India goes: it lays the foundation for more such hare-brained interlinks to be implemented.
The National Perspective Plan of 1980 has proposed 30 interlinks, spanning 37 rivers. So in queue, after the
Ken-Betwa, are the Parbati-Kalisindh-Chambal, the Godavari-Cauvery, the Par-Tapi-Narmada and many,
many more.

Ignoring science

The union government’s decision to go ahead with the interlinking of the Ben-Betwa rivers despite all the
concerns raised – legal, social, ecological and environmental – is just one of the many examples where India
has consistently ignored science to implement schemes that are mightily vain and completely unnecessary.

Don’t get me wrong: India’s top brass do know that science is important. And they’ve said it too.

“To protect nature is important… But for this today, we also need scientific data, research, analysis, and
knowledge of trends,” Yadav said, commenting on the need for science while justifying the importance of
the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2023 on the day of its launch on December 21, just four days before
the grand inauguration of the Ken-Betwa interlinking project.

And yet, it is astonishing, disheartening and at the same time unsurprising – both as a wildlife biologist and
as a reporter – to see how this need for robust science is put into practice only when the government at the
helm fancies it.

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One case in point is Project Cheetah. In September 2022 and February 2023, despite warnings from
scientists and conservationists, India imported 20 adult African cheetahs (a subspecies different from the
Asiatic cheetah, which was found in India) from Namibia and South Africa to “reintroduce” the species to
select grassland habitats in the country. Eight of them have died and some of those deaths could have been
avoided, experts have told this reporter. After a long stay in captivity, only two adult cheetahs now run free
in the wild in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park; as per a news report on December 23, one male is
now close to the Rajasthan border. Previously, cheetahs that “strayed” out of Kuno (well – that’s what
cheetahs do; they are long-ranging big cats), they’ve been tranquilized and brought back: something that
scientists have often called out for the impacts it could have on the animals’ health.

Scientists have cited several reasons why Project Cheetah is not a great idea. One is that it diverts crucial
conservation funds from other endemic grassland species such as the Great Indian bustard, which is
Critically Endangered. Another is that Kuno was supposed to have been a site for authorities to relocate
Asiatic lions into. Currently, all Asiatic lions – a subspecies that used to dwell in many parts of western and
central India – are found only in Gujarat. As the lion population increases in Gujarat (a good sign) and
lions become more common in rural and even coastal areas – including areas that people live in – it
becomes increasingly evident that at least some of these lions need a new home. But now, Kuno looks
extremely unlikely as a potential Asiatic lion dwelling: authorities are so caught up with the world’s fastest
land mammal that India’s very own Asiatic lions are no longer even in the picture.

Another case in point is the slew of developmental projects that the union government – again, ignoring
science, and scientists and their warnings – is going to implement on the Great Nicobar Island soon.
Authorities may cut down up to one crore trees for the projects; endemic species such as the Nicobar
megapode, and giant leatherback turtles that nest on its beaches could be threatened; the Shompen and
Nicobarese – indigenous tribal communities who live there – could also be at risk. Those are only just a few
of the many impacts that the projects will have. The latest India State of Forest Report states that the
Andaman and Nicobar Islands have lost around 4.6 sq km of mangrove cover over the last two years. “It will
only get worse with the proposed projects,” a scientist who has worked in Great Nicobar Island told this
reporter a day ago.

“The Ken-Betwa river interlinking national project will change the picture of Bundelkhand,” Modi said, on
X, on December 25.

Indeed it will, prime minister. What the ignoring of science will now mean for the Ken-Betwa and the
hugely changed waterscape, riverscape, agriscape and people-scape that it will bring about is something we
will, now, only have to wait and watch.

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