PIB TrackerThe first river link is being built beside a tiger reserve
The Ken-Betwa backgrounder puts the project at ₹44,605 crore — a 96.7 m dam in Panna, a 216 km canal, and a landscape management plan for the Greater Panna Landscape.
What happened
- KBLP is the first project under the National Perspective Plan for interlinking of rivers to enter implementation.
- The 96.7 m Daudhan Dam on the Ken feeds a 216.465 km canal ending at Barua Sagar near Jhansi.
- Cost is ₹44,605 crore; the foundation stone was laid on 25 December 2024 and completion is due in 2030.
- Claimed benefits: irrigation for 10.62 lakh ha, drinking water for 62 lakh people, 103 MW hydro and 27 MW solar.
- Awards of ₹629.87 crore have been passed for 5,039 affected families, about 96% paid.
For Prelims
- KBLP: the Ken-Betwa Link Project, moving water from the Ken basin to the Betwa basin across Bundelkhand in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
- Daudhan Dam: 96.7 m high, on the Ken in Panna and Chhatarpur districts, about 40 km from Khajuraho.
- Other components: the Lower Orr Project, Kotha Barrage and the Bina Complex Multipurpose Project.
- Clearances: Environmental Clearance 25 August 2017, Wildlife Clearance 2016, Tribal Affairs 2017, Forest Clearance 3 October 2023.
- Consent route: free, prior and informed consent of gram sabhas under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 preceded forest clearance.
- ILMP: the Integrated Landscape Management Plan for the Greater Panna Landscape, prepared by the Wildlife Institute of India; the Greater Panna Landscape Council is chaired by the state Chief Secretary.
- R&R: Madhya Pradesh's Special Package, approved 13 September 2023, pays the higher of the statutory rate or ₹12.50 lakh per hectare, with ₹7 lakh for a rural plot or ₹12.50 lakh as a lump sum.
- Displacement: 22 villages affected in Madhya Pradesh — 8 in Panna and 14 in Chhatarpur.
For UPSC: The one river-linking project with a full documentary record of clearances, resettlement and landscape mitigation. Use it for interlinking of rivers, the LARR and Forest Rights Acts and the development-conservation trade-off.
What it is NOT: The link is not operational — the dam is under construction, canal work has yet to begin and completion is scheduled for 2030.
For Mains
Syllabus: GS3.14 · GS3.4 · Linkage L2
Anchor
The hard question in river linking is not hydrology but what happens to the landscape the water is taken from — here, the core of a tiger reserve.
Substantiation (data)
₹44,605 crore, a 96.7 m dam, a 216.465 km canal, 10.62 lakh hectares of irrigation, 62 lakh people for drinking water, 103 MW of hydro and 27 MW of solar.
Exemplification
An equivalent area of non-forest land adjoining the Panna core has been provided and the Wildlife Institute of India's landscape plan runs through a council under the state Chief Secretary — mitigation at landscape scale rather than plot scale.
Problematisation
Compensatory land and a management plan are inputs; tiger, vulture and gharial numbers are the outcome, and the canal that will cut the landscape has not been built yet.
Way-forward
Publish annual Greater Panna Landscape monitoring against the clearance conditions so the mitigation record is auditable alongside the construction record.
Position
If Ken-Betwa is to be the template its promoters claim, the part worth copying is the landscape council, not the canal.
Deploys into: Conservation + irrigation (GS3.14, GS3.4) · interlinking of rivers, forest and wildlife clearances, resettlement under LARR and Bundelkhand water security.
PIB Backgrounder · 2026-08-21 · PRID 2301975 · PIB source ↗