Water and Energy Abstracts
Year : 2004, Volume : 14, Issue : 1
First page : ( 8) Last page : ( 8)
Print ISSN : 0021-1672.

9. Sustainable Management of Archaeological Monuments at Indira Sagar, India

Dodeja S.K., Bhatt V.B.

(Proceedings, Hydro 2003, Vol. I, Croatia, pp. 179–188).

Abstract

India is endowed with tremendous water wealth which is yet to be harnessed to its potential. Reasons for slow pace of development of water resources projects vary from lack of financial resources to deterrents sometimes posed by Environmentalists. Sustainable Development of any project is however received with great enthusiasm by the society. The models of sustainability are also designed to meet both economic and environmental objectives in time and space. Exploitation of natural resources beyond their regenerative capacities has led to environmental degradation worldwide. Sustainable Development therefore aims at maintaining an equilibrium between human needs and economic developments within the parameters of environmental conservation while ensuring tradeoffs between desired production-consumption levels. Indira Sagar Project is an ambitious project on river Narmada. It has an installed capacity of 1000 MW and is located at Punasa in the district of Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh. The Project is the biggest in India on its completion in terms of its storage capacity. Due to its tremendous water holding capacity it will provide water to all the downstream projects i.e. Omkareshwar Project and Maheshwar Project in Madhya Pradesh and Sardar Sarovar Project in Gujarat. The biggest ever man made lake in India will be created (913 sq. km) to hold about 12 billion cubic metre of water storage in the reservoir of Indira Sagar Project. As a result of reservoir creation, 91,348 ha of land would be submerged affecting 249 villages in Indira Sagar Project. Narmada river is the west flowing river having its origin in Amarkantak in M.P. All old civilisations flourished near the banks of perennial rivers of which remains are found. The Narmada valley is no exception and as such the valley is very rich in archaeologically important wealth. The Archaeological Monuments are thus required to be saved from permanent submergence as also the important mounds are to be excavated for further collection of knowledge about historic value buried under earth before the large tracts of such location gets submerged. An ambitious programme of salvaging the heritage getting affected due to construction of Indira Sagar Project is currently underway. The Power component (Dam & Power Houses) of the Project is being constructed by NHDC Ltd. (A Joint Venture of NHPC & Govt. of Madhya Pradesh). In the present paper an attempt has been made to highlight the various efforts being made to translocate/restore/retrieve the archaeological wealth available scattered in the submergence area of the project scientifically. The construction programme is scheduled in such a way that no monument comes under submergence before it is properly translocated/restored. The case study also reflects the benefits of adopting joint participatory approach while constructing large dam projects.

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Keywords

Water resources, Financial, Environmental, Translocate, Restore, Retrieve, Archaeological, Scientifically.

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