Free Courses Sale ends Soon, Get It Now


SUKAPAIKA RIVER

26th October, 2022

Disclaimer: Copyright infringement not intended.

 

Context: Odisha Government has started working on Sukapaika River revival plan following a recent direction from the National Green Tribunal (NGT).

Details:

  • This is probably the first serious attempt being made to restore a river to its original shape in Odisha. 
  • The problem has started in 1952, when the state government blocked the starting point of the Sukapaika with an embankment to save the villages around it from floods.
  • Subsequently, in 1957, two major projects — Hirakud Dam in Sambalpur district and Naraj barrage at Cuttack — were built upstream on the Mahanadi, ostensibly to control floods in it.
  • The river dried up due to the development of the Taladanda Canal System, a major canal of the State.
  • Sukapaika is one of the several distributaries of the mighty Mahanadi river in Odisha.
  • It branches away from the Mahanadi at Ayatpur village in Cuttack district and flows for about 40 kilometres (km) before rejoining its parent river at Tarapur in the same district.
  • In the process, it drains a large landmass comprising over 425 villages under 26 gram panchayats in three blocks — Cuttack Sadar, Nischintakoili and Raghunathpur.

 

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/breathing-life-into-a-dead-river-in-odisha/article66045196.ece