Mekedatu Dam Project

Why in News?

• The Centre has given its assurance that Karnataka will not be allowed to carry out any construction on the Mekedatu dam project on Cauvery river until its Detailed Project Report (DPR) is approved by the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA)

About

• The project was first approved by the Karnataka state government in 2017. It is a Rs. 9,000 crore project which aims to store and supply water for drinking purposes for the Bengaluru city. Around 400 megawatts (MW) of power is also proposed to be generated through the project

• It received approval from the erstwhile Ministry of Water Resources for the detailed project report and is awaiting approval from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC). The approval from MoEFCC is crucial because 63% of the forest area of the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary will be submerged

• Mekedatu, meaning goat’s leap, is a deep gorge situated at the confluence of rivers Cauvery and its tributary Arkavathi

• The proposed reservoir site, Ontigondlu, is situated at Ramanagara district in Karnataka about 100 km away from Bengaluru. It is in the midst of Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary

• Tamil Nadu has approached the Supreme Court (SC) against the project even if Karnataka has held that it would not affect the flow of water to Tamil Nadu

About Cauvery River 

• It rises on Brahmagiri Hill of the Western Ghats in southwestern Karnataka state, flows in a southeasterly direction for 475 miles (765 km) through the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, and descends the Eastern Ghats in a series of great falls
• Before emptying into the Bay of Bengal south of Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, the river breaks into a large number of distributaries forming a wide delta called the “garden of southern India” 
• Important tributaries: Arkavathi, Hemavathi, Lakshmana Theertha, Shimsa, Kabini, Harangi