The National Green Tribunal (NGT) wants a relook at Kaleshwaram Project since the Telangana government subsequently changed the design of the project.

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The Kaleshwaram Project

• The Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation System is considered to be one of the world’s largest multi-purpose projects.
• It is designed to provide water for irrigation and drinking purposes to about 45 lakh acres in 20 of the 31 districts in Telangana, apart from Hyderabad and Secunderabad.
• This project is unique because Telangana will harness water at the confluence of two rivers with the Godavari by constructing a barrage at Medigadda in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district.
• It would reverse pump the water into the main Godavari River and divert it through lifts and pumps into a huge and complex system of reservoirs, water tunnels, pipelines and canals.

Records to its glory

• The project has set many records with the world’s longest water tunnels, aqueducts, underground surge pools, and biggest pumps.
• By the time the water reaches Kondapochamma Sagar, the last reservoir in the system, the water would have been lifted to a height of 618 metres from its source at Medigadda.
• The total length of the entire Kaleshwaram project is approximately 1,832 km of which 1,531 km is gravity canals and 203 km comprises water tunnels.

How important is KLIS to Telangana?

• The project will enable farmers in Telangana to reap multiple crops with a year-round supply of water wherein earlier they were dependent on rains resulting in frequent crop failures.
• This year, Telangana farmers have already delivered bumper rabi crops of paddy and maize due to better irrigation facilities and an extended monsoon.
• KLIS covers several districts which used to face rainfall deficit and the groundwater is fluoride-contaminated.
• Apart from irrigation, a main component of the project is the supply of drinking water to several towns and villages and also to twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.
• Mission Bhagiratha, the Rs 43,000-crore project to supply drinking water to every household in villages, draws a large quantity of water from the KLIS and some quantity from projects on River Krishna.
• There is a burgeoning freshwater fishing industry in the state.

Issues raised by NGT

• The NGT has observed that the Telangana government subsequently changed the design of the project to increase its capacity.
• By increasing its capacity to pump 3 TMC water from 2 TMC, large tracts of forest land and other land was taken over and massive infrastructure was built causing adverse impact on the environment.
• Extraction of more water certainly requires more storage capacity and also affects hydrology and riverine ecology of Godavari River.
• Such issues have to be examined by the statutory authorities concerned.

B2Basics

National Green tribunal

• It is a specialised body set up under the National Green Tribunal Act (2010) for effective and expeditious disposal of cases relating to environmental protection and conservation of forests and other natural resources.
• With the establishment of the NGT, India became the third country in the world to set up a specialised environmental tribunal, only after Australia and New Zealand, and the first developing country to do so.
• NGT is mandated to make disposal of applications or appeals finally within 6 months of filing of the same.
• The NGT has five places of sittings, New Delhi is the Principal place of sitting and Bhopal, Pune, Kolkata and Chennai are the other four.

Structure of NGT

• The Tribunal comprises of the Chairperson, the Judicial Members and Expert Members. They shall hold office for term of five years and are not eligible for reappointment.
• The Chairperson is appointed by the Central Government in consultation with Chief Justice of India (CJI).
• A Selection Committee shall be formed by central government to appoint the Judicial Members and Expert Members.
• There are to be least 10 and maximum 20 full time Judicial members and Expert Members in the tribunal.

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