New Delhi: It was Bitti Bai Kondar, with mud smeared on her face, knee-deep in the Ken River, visibly bound to her land and her lands that the family have farmed on for over a century. She is one among hundreds of tribal populations outraged by one in a series of government schemes to connect India’s rivers, which is projected to cost $87 billion.
Her four grown sons are demonstrating along with the rising flood waters in Kondar’s village. In recent years, many women also have died on simulated pyres to demonstrate disrespect. These protesters refuse to leave their homeland unless they receive some other form of compensation.
The temple in which he worked, said local priest Dhaniram Bhatnagar, has been completely washed away.
The initial phase, the Ken-Betwa link, connecting Madhya Pradesh’s Ken River to Uttar Pradesh’s Betwa is estimated to come up at $4.6 billion. The larger project’s goal is to tie together some 30 rivers throughout the nation.
The Ken residents in Panna district have been offered at least 1.25 million rupees per hectare, an offer that is more than double the initial amount of 500,000 rupees per hectare offered. Other residents say the payments are not nearly as much as they are losing.
There is also increasing environmental opposition. The National Campaign for Tiger Conservation believes that the proposed 3,000-foot high Daudhan Dam on the Ken would take a significant area of the Ken, some 9,000 hectares, of which a significant portion is to be subsumed by the dam, is to be submerged, including a large portion of one of the most successful Tiger Conservatories undertaken by the Indian government, called the Panna Tiger Reserve. The government reports that the damage can be minimised with tree planting and wildlife measures.
There is some doubt about the scientific basis for the project. Himanshu Thakkar, from the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDPRP), questioned the feasibility of the plan, saying it is based on a flawed premise that excess water was available in the basin of the Ken while insufficient was available in the Betwa basin.
She could not immediately comment on those assumptions, said a government spokeswoman. She referred to a statement issued on August 21, stating that the project will help solve the water scarcity problem in the Bundelkhand region, and bring irrigation, drinking water and hydropower to the area.
The project is touted to displace approximately 1500 families.The project is anticipated to send roughly 1500 families off.
