Ken-Betwa protest: Why are tribals opposing the river-linking project | Explained
The story so far: Less than 24 hours after the Delhi Police’s forcible removal of activist Sonam Wangchuk from his protest site at Jantar Mantar
The story so far: Less than 24 hours after the Delhi Police’s forcible removal of activist Sonam Wangchuk from his protest site at Jantar Mantar on the 21st day of his indefinite hunger strike, the Madhya Pradesh Police ended another protest about 650 km from the national capital. Early morning of Sunday (July 19, 2026), M.P. Police personnel arrived on the banks of Barana river stream in Kupi village of Chhatarpur district and cleared a protest site where hundreds of villages, mostly tribals, had been demonstrating for two weeks against the Union Government’s ₹44,000 crore Ken-Betwa Link Project (KBLP), India’s first river linking project, and two irrigation projects of the Madhya Pradesh Government. The police also took local activist Amit Bhatnagar, founder of Jai Kisan Sangathan, who had been on an indefinite hunger strike for 14 days and admitted him to a government hospital, while nearly 150 protestors, most of them from neighbouring Panna district, were taken in buses and dropped in their villages. Videos that emerged from the scene showed a group of protestors standing in the middle of the river and holding onto each other amid heavy water flow, women protestors being dragged away from the shore by the police, and a group of personnel carrying Mr. Bhatnagar into an ambulance. The visuals from the demonstration grabbed national attention on social media where men and women could be seen placing hanging noose around the neck while some lied on symbolic pyres inside the water. They raised the slogan ‘nyaya do ya maar do [either give us justice or kill us]’. The unique protest, that was first held in April, had been relaunched earlier this month after discussions and efforts by the government failed to convince the villagers. The protestors have been demanding improved rehabilitation and compensation package for families facing displacement by a dam while also alleging various irregularities in selection of eligible people for compensation. What is the Ken-Betwa river linking project? Part of the Ken-Betwa river linking project is the first of 30 such link projects under a Perspective Plan (NPP) for water resources development and interlinking of rivers with ‘surplus water’ to those with ‘deficit water’, formulated in 1980 by the Ministry (then Union Ministry of Irrigation) and the Central Water Commission.
The NPP is divided into two components — Himalayan Rivers Development that proposes 14 links and Peninsular Rivers Development that plans 16 links, as identified by the Water Development Agency (NWDA). The foundation stone for the project was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 25, 2024, at an event in Madhya Pradesh’s Khajuraho where he laid the foundation stone for the construction of Daudhan dam. The project plans on transferring the declared surplus water of the Ken river by constructing the Daudhan Dam on it and using a 221-km canal, including a 2-km tunnel, to the Betwa river. Apart from this, the project is also expected to generate 103 MW of hydropower and 27 MW of solar power. It is also aimed at solving the water woes of the drought-prone Bundelkhand region by providing drinking water to 4.4 million people in about 12 districts of Madhya Pradesh and more than two million people in 10 districts of Uttar Pradesh. Spread between the northern parts of Madhya Pradesh and southern Uttar Pradesh, the partly-hilly region covers 13 districts in the two States and has for long suffered droughts and water shortages. The region is also among one of the country’s most socio-economically backward regions. Madhya Pradesh also features in the plans for three more similar river linking projects. Protest against Ken-Betwa river link project turns violent in M.P.; 3 cases lodged What are the key demands of the affected tribal families? As per the Union Government, 7,193 familiies of 14 villages in Chhatarpur and eight villages in Panna district are facing displacement under the project. However, the protests are not only against the Ken-Betwa project but also include at least five Madhya Pradesh Government works such as the Majhgaon and Runjh irrigation projects. The primary demands regarding the Ken-Betwa project are that each adult individual be counted as a single unit for the ₹12.5 rehabilitation package instead of a family, and that the cut-off date for the eligibility be moved from February 16, 2024 to the current date, according to Divya Ahirwar of Jai Kisan Sangathan. As for the other projects, the protestors demand that the rehabilitation provided to them be in line with the Ken-Betwa project.
The BriefWire