UPSC Prelims 2022 Q70: Reservoirs and Their States — Explained
Consider the following pairs:
Reservoirs : States
1. Ghataprabha : Telangana
2. Gandhi Sagar : Madhya Pradesh
3. Indira Sagar : Andhra Pradesh
4. Maithon : Chhattisgarh
How many pairs given above are not correctly matched?
- Only one pair
- Only two pairs
- Only three pairs
- All four pairs
Answer: (c) Only three pairs
Statement-wise explanation
- 1: incorrect — The Ghataprabha reservoir is in Karnataka, not Telangana. Its dam, the Raja Lakhamagouda (Hidkal) dam, stands across the Ghataprabha river at Hidkal village in Hukkeri taluk, Belagavi district. The Ghataprabha is a right-bank tributary of the Krishna. It rises in the Western Ghats and joins the Krishna in north Karnataka without entering Telangana.
- 2: correct — The Gandhi Sagar dam is on the Chambal in Mandsaur district, Madhya Pradesh. Prime Minister Nehru laid its foundation stone on 7 March 1954, and it began generating power in 1960. It is the first and uppermost of the four Chambal Valley Project structures. The other three, Rana Pratap Sagar, Jawahar Sagar and the Kota Barrage, are in Rajasthan.
- 3: incorrect — The Indira Sagar dam is on the Narmada at Narmada Nagar (Punasa) in Khandwa district, Madhya Pradesh. The Narmada does not flow through Andhra Pradesh. NHDC, a joint venture of NHPC and the Government of Madhya Pradesh, runs its 1,000 MW power station (8 × 125 MW). By storage it is among India's largest reservoirs.
- 4: incorrect — The Maithon dam is on the Barakar river, a tributary of the Damodar, in Dhanbad district, Jharkhand, on the border with West Bengal. The Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) built and runs it, and it opened in 1957. Its underground hydel power station was the first of its kind in the region. The Damodar system does not reach Chhattisgarh.
How to eliminate
You can reach the answer from basic river geography if you place each reservoir on its river first. (1) Indira Sagar is a Narmada dam, and the Narmada flows only through Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat, so it cannot be in Andhra Pradesh. (2) Maithon is a DVC dam, and the Damodar–Barakar system lies in Jharkhand and West Bengal, so it cannot be in Chhattisgarh. That already makes two pairs wrong, which leaves 'two', 'three' or 'all four'. (3) Gandhi Sagar is the best-known Chambal dam in Madhya Pradesh, and recent cheetah news has made it even better known, so 'all four' goes. (4) Ghataprabha decides between two and three. It is a Krishna tributary in Karnataka, with its dam at Hidkal in Belagavi. Telangana is the trap: the Krishna does flow through Telangana, so the pairing looks plausible. Fact to remember: the Ghataprabha, Malaprabha and Tungabhadra are Krishna tributaries whose major dams are in Karnataka.
Know more
Reading reservoir–state pairs through rivers
UPSC rarely asks about a dam alone. The quick check is: reservoir → river → states that river crosses. If the state is not on the river's course, the pair is wrong.
| Reservoir / dam | River | Basin | District, State | Operator / project |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ghataprabha (Hidkal) | Ghataprabha | Krishna | Belagavi, Karnataka | Ghataprabha Irrigation Project |
| Gandhi Sagar | Chambal | Yamuna–Ganga | Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh | Chambal Valley Project (MP–Rajasthan) |
| Indira Sagar | Narmada | Narmada | Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh | NHDC (NHPC + MP govt), 1,000 MW |
| Maithon | Barakar | Damodar | Dhanbad, Jharkhand | Damodar Valley Corporation |
Chambal cascade. Four structures are built in a chain down the river: Gandhi Sagar (MP), Rana Pratap Sagar, Jawahar Sagar and the Kota Barrage (all in Rajasthan). The Chambal is a right-bank tributary of the Yamuna.
Narmada cascade. Indira Sagar, the upper storage, feeds Omkareshwar (520 MW) downstream, both in Khandwa. The river ends at Sardar Sarovar in Gujarat.
DVC. The Damodar Valley Corporation was set up on 7 July 1948 on the model of the USA's Tennessee Valley Authority, and it was India's first multipurpose river valley project. Its main dams are Tilaiya and Maithon on the Barakar, and Konar and Panchet on the Damodar and its tributary. The Durgapur Barrage lies downstream in West Bengal.
Krishna tributaries in Karnataka. The Ghataprabha (Hidkal dam), the Malaprabha (Naviluteertha) and the Tungabhadra (Hosapete) are often paired wrongly with Telangana or Andhra Pradesh. Those states sit further down the Krishna main stem, at Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar.
NCERT Concepts to Revise
- Chambal river: Knowing which states the Chambal crosses lets you check where the Gandhi Sagar dam on it can be.
- Narmada river: The Narmada's course limits the states where Indira Sagar, a Narmada reservoir, can be.
- Damodar Valley Corporation: Maithon is a DVC dam, so DVC's area of operation tells you where to place it.
- Multipurpose river project: All four reservoirs belong to multipurpose projects that combine irrigation, hydropower and flood control.