ABSTRACT
It is now a growing concern that how extensive and significant human impacts on fluvial geomorphology have been and how these impacts are likely to increase in future. Anthropocene is a real entity, and there is a rich and complex research area over what the Anthropocene means for humans and our relationship with the earth. Much of the complexity and dynamics of man–river interaction can be solved by anthropogeomorphology which is the study of human role in creating landforms and modifying the operations of hydrogeomorphic processes within Anthropocene. Since the independence of India (1947), the river systems of Himalayas and Peninsular India are rigorously modified by humans and these rivers are affected by the changes in seasonal flows, sediment loads and escalating anthropogenic activities related to decaying of rivers. It is now a grave issue that what will be the future of Indian Rivers under the influence of climate change and expansive regional development. The Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC, India’s first multi-purpose river valley project on the Damodar River Basin of eastern India) has carried the signatures of past and present anthropogenic impacts since the 1950s. Humans and the engineering structures have had a colossal impact on the hydrogeomorphology of Damodar River from the source to the mouth over 75 years, disturbing the connectivity of flows and forms and the ecological health of river itself. Four large dams (Konar, Tilaiya, Maithon and Panchet), Tenughat reservoir and Durgapur Barrage are built to tamp the furious floods and to use water resource and hydroelectricity in an integrated way for the regional development. The DVC has deliberately altered the fluvial landscapes by the building of dams, embankments and canals to boost the economic structure of Jharkhand and West Bengal with special emphasis on the industrialisation, urbanisation and agricultural growth. For that reason, the functionality of Damodar fluvial system is in a dwindling phase of dynamic equilibrium between fluvial processes and anthropogenic processes. The results of the present research show a number of hydrogeomorphic problems in Anthropocene, including siltation of river bed and reservoirs, changes in channel morphology, uncontrolled monsoon flow, declining carrying capacity of lower course, drainage congestion in monsoon, channel shifting and decay of palaeochannels, decline in groundwater level and pollution of river water. In short, the present chapter tries to unearth the variable responses (in terms of channel forms and processes) of Damodar River to human actions in the pre-dam and post-dam periods.
