Rajasthan river-link lifeline could submerge 37 sq km in tiger reserve

Of the PKC-ERCP’s total submergence area of 408.86 sq km in Rajasthan, 227 sq km will go under the reservoir of a proposed 39-m-high and 1.6-km-long dam across Banas river, a tributary of Chambal, near village Doongri, about 30 km from Sawai Madhopur town.

Of this, project details show, 37.03 sq km belong to Ranthambhore national park (392 sq km) and Keladevi wildlife sanctuary (674 sq km), both part of the Ranthambhore tiger reserve (1,113 sq km), currently home to 57 tigers.

The submergence on both sides of the proposed dam will constrict the north-south animal dispersal route between the two halves of the reserve (see map).

The move has renewed calls for “high-value forests” to be avoided while designing dams, with conservationists saying this section of the project will “adversely impact” the iconic reserve’s habitat connectivity and carrying capacity.

When contacted, Baleshwar Thakur, director general of the National Water Development Agency (NWDA), which is in charge of the ILR initiative, said multiple Central agencies would evaluate the Detailed Project Report (DPR) being prepared by Rajasthan.

“We will examine the plan before sending it to the Central Water Commission’s Technical Advisory Committee. All care will be taken to minimise impact on the tiger reserve. If submergence is unavoidable, double or triple the amount of forest land will be integrated like it has been done (for the Panna tiger reserve) in the Ken-Betwa project,” he said.

On December 17, at a function to mark the first anniversary of the incumbent BJP government in Rajasthan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of PKC-ERCP, which will also supply water to Malwa and Chambal regions of Madhya Pradesh.

Incidentally, Ranthambhore is the third tiger reserve facing loss of land to upcoming reservoirs.

The North Koel Reservoir Project will submerge 10.07 sq km of Palamu tiger reserve in Jharkhand; the Ken-Betwa river link project is expected to drown 41.41 sq km of Panna tiger reserve in Madhya Pradesh.

In 2017, Rajasthan under the then chief minister Vasundhara Raje conceived the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP). However, the project was not acceptable to Madhya Pradesh, which also shares the Chambal river basin, due to the high volume of water extraction planned by Rajasthan.

Soon after the BJP returned to power in Rajasthan in December 2023, the Centre combined the Parbati-Kalisindh-Chambal (PKC) Link project, which was pending implementation in Madhya Pradesh, with Rajasthan’s ERCP as PKC-ERCP.

The two states signed an MoU with the Centre for the modified project last January.

While the ERCP segment has already been planned by Rajasthan, the project is now undergoing capacity enhancement due to the linking of Parbati, Kalisindh and Chambal (PKC) rivers, necessitating a modified DPR.

The revised DPR of the Rajasthan segment of the PKC-ERCP will be submitted to the Central Water Commission by mid-January, said Rakesh Gupta, MD, Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project Corporation Ltd, which is under the Rajasthan government.

While capacity enhancement will be part of the modified DPR, Gupta said parameters already planned for the Doongri dam in 2018 remained unchanged. “Some forest areas will be required. We will follow the due procedure to seek permission for submergence,” he said.

Asked about the impending loss of parts of the Ranthambhore tiger reserve, Rajasthan’s chief wildlife warden Arijit Banerjee said: “We will examine the implications on the ground when the project details come to us (the forest department) in the due process. It will be premature to comment before that.”

However, after Rajasthan submitted the ERCP for Environmental Clearance in September 2018, the ministry’s Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) for hydel projects noted that the project’s “command area is falling in Ranthambhore” and set up an expert sub-committee to ascertain “any likely adverse impact on wildlife”.

The panel visited the dam site in January 2019, and recommended that “a suitable area may be identified adjacent to the wildlife sanctuaries so that the core area of the wildlife sanctuary is kept intact”.

A senior official of the Rajasthan government said that the “the dead storage in the proposed reservoir should benefit the tiger reserve prone to water shortage” during summer.

But there’s cause for concern. “This will adversely impact the habitat and its biological carrying capacity. If submergence is unavoidable, the loss must be compensated by notifying double the area, either abutting the tiger reserve or in its vicinity. It’s best to avoid at least our tiger reserves and national parks as no-go zones,” said Dr Rajesh Gopal, former chief of Project Tiger.

Said Dharmendra Khandal of TigerWatch, an NGO based in Sawai Madhopur: “Such losses are usually justified by allotment of some compensatory land. But we must ask if we even try to avoid high-value forests while designing dams. Ranthambhore is not just any land. We should think of compensation only when the loss is unavoidable.”

A former royal hunting ground, Ranthambhore was declared a tiger reserve in 1974. Over the decades, it has emerged as one of the few strongholds of India’s national animal and the world’s favourite tiger destination.

Phase One of the PKC-ERCP involves the construction of the Doongri dam and five barrages — Ramgarh, Mahalpur, Navnera, Mej, and Rathod on the river Kul, Parbati, Kalisindh, Me] and Banas, respectively — a water conductor system from Ramgarh barrage to Doongri dam and the renovation of Isarda dam. In Madhya Pradesh, the Kumbhraj dam on Parvati and the SMRS dam on Kuno are proposed. The deadline for this phase is 2028.