Upper Bhadra Canal project gets green nod in Karnataka
BENGALURU: The National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) has cleared the much awaited Upper Bhadra Project (UBP) canal which will provide water to the drier areas and the drought prone districts of Chitradurga, Davangere and Tumakuru.
However, the Board has recommended a series of mitigation measures as suggested by the chief wildlife warden, National Tiger Conservation Authority and NBWL member Prof R Sukumar.
The NBWL’s Standing Committee has said, “In place of a traditional open canal system, construction of an underground pipeline system has to be taken up in view of the project location in a tiger landscape along with distribution and dispersal of leopards, elephants and other endangered species. Although this would entail higher investment and technological skills, the benefits for irrigation in terms of evaporation loss and water seepage would be much greater compared to the traditional system.”
Since the project entails large scale abstraction of water from the Bhadra Reservoir during the monsoon months resulting in severe repercussions on water availability within the river and have adverse effects on endangered species, the Board has recommended monitoring of the abstraction process by the user agency and Forest department. Further, local range forest officers have to ensure that no additional tree is felled during the construction of the canals in the tiger reserve.
With the existence of an old canal that runs parallel to the Package II, cross over bridges, culverts, super passages, etc have to be constructed at regular intervals over this canal for free movement of wildlife in both the protected and ESZ areas. Further, chain link fencing and construction of water holes near canals should be avoided as these will attract animals to come near the canals and escalate man-animal conflicts, the panel said.
Prof Sukumar, who carried out site inspection of the project as part of a three member committee says, “The main issue arising from this project is the potential for habitat fragmentation around the broader landscape of the Bhadra Tiger Reserve. So for this reason, there is a need for 2-2.5km long underground canal under package 1 between the second pump house point eastward to the Bhadra Reservoir.”
“While under package 2, the construction of a bridge across the canal would suffice in the Gurupur State Forest to the north of the canal. The location of the bridges should be decided in consultation with the Forest Department and conservationists working in this area,” he adds.
D V Girish, wildlife conservationist from Bhadra region, said, “It is good that the lift irrigation project is outside the reserve. The mitigation measures proposed are good and they should be implemented in toto, otherwise repercussions will be serious.”
Mitigation Measures
Legal status of forest land to be maintained
Irrigation pipeline at 1-2 meter depth under soil
Pipeline covered with native vegetation
Ramps on old canal to avoid wildlife mortality
Minimal disturbance to wildlife
Controlled blasting during daytime
No construction at night
No night labour camp within the forest
Dumping of debris outside forest boundaries
Monitoring of labour work force
Forest diversion
The irrigation canal project comprises two packages, the first one involving diversion of 96.65 hectares of forest in Muthinakoppa minor forest and Aramballi state forest of Koppa forest division for a canal to lift 17.4 tmc feet of water from Tunga River to Bhadra Reservoir. While package two involves diversion of 110 hectares of forest in Bhadravati forest division for a canal to lift 29.9 tmc feet of water from Bhadra reservoir to Ajjampura.