ABSTRACT
India is identified as a country where water scarcity is expected to grow considerably in the coming decades due to increasing demand linked to population growth, agriculture expansion and rapid industrialization. Further, droughts resulting from climatic variability cause considerable human suffering in many parts of the country, in the form of scarcity of water for both domestic needs and crop protection. The project for interlinking of rivers of India emanates from a desire of the political leadership of the country to bring a permanent solution to the negative impacts of drought and water shortages in these parts (NWDA, 2003). This project has been designed with the concept that it will improve the living status of people in India, with growth in our economy. The completion of this project will result in constant water supply for domestic use, agriculture and industries along with flood control, improvement in water flow, navigation, food security, etc. Construction of dams, canals, etc. and their maintenance will create opportunities for new jobs, which will check the migration of people from villages to cities. The interlinking project is to bring an extra 34 million hectare (Mha) of land under irrigation using 173 billion cubic meters (BCM) of additional water created in this project. Production of hydropower (34 gigawatts) in this project is expected, which may be inexpensive and eco-friendly. However, several scientists and others are concerned about river diversion, which would disturb the entire hydrological cycle by stopping the rivers from performing their normal ecological functions (Gurjar, 2003; Radhakrishna, 2003). It is therefore necessary that the ecological damages that may be caused by interlinking rivers on top of the climate change be assessed comprehensively and realistically before the project is implemented.
