Assess the Ken-Betwa Link Project as a model for interlinking rivers in India, weighing water security against ecological and social costs.

The Ken-Betwa Link Project (KBLP) is India's first river-interlinking project to be built. It carries water from the Ken through the Daudhan Dam (96.7 m) and a 216 km canal to the Betwa basin. The project costs ₹44,605 crore, of which the Centre pays ₹39,317 crore [1]. It does a lot for water security, but its ecological and social costs make it a model that still needs refining.

Water security: the case for KBLP

• Drought relief: It is meant to end Bundelkhand's long-standing water scarcity in both Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh [2].
• Multiple benefits: It will irrigate about 11 lakh ha, generate over 100 MW of power and supply drinking water [3].
• Fiscal federalism: The Centre pays about 88% of the cost, so a poor region gets a project it could not fund on its own [1].
• Institutional model: A dedicated SPV, the Ken-Betwa Link Project Authority, implements it [1].

Ecological costs

• Tiger habitat loss: About 4,141 ha of Panna Tiger Reserve's core will go under water [4].
• Offsets don't match on quality: The government will add non-forest land next to the core and set aside conservation funds [1]. But new land takes years to become habitat, while submergence happens once and cannot be undone.
• Hydrological uncertainty: The plan depends on the Ken having surplus water, even though the whole region is drought-prone.

Social costs

• Displacement: Forest-dependent villages in Panna-Chhatarpur lose land, grazing grounds and forest produce.
• Consent gap: Under s.41(3) of the LARR Act, 2013, the Gram Sabha's prior consent is needed only in Scheduled Areas [5]. A Parliamentary Standing Committee found such consent is "often obtained as a mere formality" [6].
• Undervalued losses: The same Committee asked for Community Forest Resource titles under the FRA to be counted in compensation, and for no land to be taken until resettlement sites work [6].

Verdict as a model KBLP shows that interlinking can be financed and managed through an SPV. But it is not yet a good template on ecology or R&R.

Water security ──┐
                 ├─► Sustainable interlinking
Ecology + R&R ───┘   (needs both legs)

Fig: Both legs are needed for a replicable model

KBLP brings much-needed water security, but at a high cost to ecology and to communities. Before other links copy it, India should:

• complete R&R before taking possession of land;
• require independently verified Gram Sabha consent for every acquisition, as the Standing Committee recommended;
• plan for the whole landscape, not just the dam site.

This would make river interlinking fit with Article 21, SDG 6 (clean water) and SDG 15 (life on land): development that is fair to the people and places that pay for it.