Why are there protests over the Ken-Betwa project?

📌 Summary:

• On July 19, Madhya Pradesh police cleared a two-week protest site on the Barana river stream at Kupi village (Chhatarpur) against the Rs 44,000-crore Ken-Betwa Link Project — India's first river-interlinking project — and two State irrigation projects
• Activist Amit Bhatnagar (founder, Jai Kisan Sangathan) was on a 14-day indefinite hunger strike; police hospitalised him and bused away nearly 150 protesters, mostly tribal people from neighbouring Panna district
• The project transfers "surplus" water from the Ken river (Bundelkhand) to the water-deficient Betwa basin via the Daudhan dam and a link canal, to irrigate drought-prone Bundelkhand and supply drinking water
• Protesters' grievances: submergence and displacement of tribal/forest villages, loss of farmland and livelihoods, and inadequate rehabilitation; ecological concern that the dam will submerge a large part of the Panna Tiger Reserve and critical wildlife habitat
• Critics question the science of "surplus" water and the cumulative environmental impact of river-linking; the project secured environmental and forest clearances despite objections

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS3 — inter-linking of rivers, EIA, forest/wildlife clearances vs development, tribal displacement and rehabilitation

📝 Prelims Facts:

• Ken and Betwa are tributaries of the Yamuna; this is India's first project under the National Perspective Plan for interlinking of rivers
• Daudhan dam (on the Ken, in Panna district) is the centrepiece; the link canal transfers water to the Betwa
• Panna Tiger Reserve lies in the submergence zone; project cost about Rs 44,000 crore

🔑 Key Term: River Interlinking — a national plan to connect surplus and deficit river basins through a network of dams and canals for irrigation, drinking water and hydropower