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Environment and Disaster Management › Environmental law and institutions
हिन्दी — Read in HindiRivers: sharing, linking and disputes
Disputes between States and how they are settled, river linking, and the rivers India shares with its other neighbours. It serves GS1 answers on resources and GS2 answers on federalism.
River linking
Copy link to River linkingPrelims and Mains
River linking is the transfer of water from a basin in surplus to one in deficit, an inter basin transfer.
- It rests on the National Perspective Plan of 1980, worked up by the National Water Development Agency into 30 links.
- The objection is that a receiving region becomes a fresh claimant on water that already has users, and may demand its transferred water even in a distress year.
- The alternative is demand side management: conserving, rewarding efficient farm use and curbing groundwater drawn on free power.
- Ken Betwa is the first link being built; its Daudhan dam lies inside Panna Tiger Reserve, and ten villages are submerged.
What changed
18 Aug 2026BriefAdivasis in Chhatarpur say they do not want to leave, alleging eviction before compensation and irregular gram sabha consent for the Ken Betwa link. Madhya Pradesh has ordered an inquiry into compensation and gram sabha proceedings. Separately, the Kosi Mechi link within Bihar is due by March 2029 under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme. The Hindu, 18 Aug 2026: 'We don't want to leave': why Adivasis are resisting the Ken-Betwa river link (opens in a new tab) · The Indian Express, 22 Jul 2026: Madhya Pradesh orders an inquiry into rehabilitation under the Ken Betwa link project (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 27 Jul 2026: KOSI-MECHI INTRA-STATE LINK PROJECT (opens in a new tab)
Brahmaputra Board
Copy link to Brahmaputra BoardPrelims and Mains
The Brahmaputra Board is a body set up under the Brahmaputra Board Act, 1980 to prepare master plans for flood control, erosion and drainage, and it remains advisory.
What changed
4 Aug 2026Newnewly added
- Of 73 master plans identified across the Brahmaputra, Barak and related basins, only 52 had been approved up to 2025.
- A North East Water Management Authority was first proposed in 2004 and a draft Bill was listed in Parliament in 2022, but it has not been enacted.
- Assam flooded in a season with a rainfall deficit, so flooding is tracking the condition of channels and embankments and not the quantity of rain.
Mains: these rivers cross several States and countries, yet flood management follows State boundaries because water is a State subject.
Also filed elsewhere
- The Brahmaputra and China · on China and the boundary
The Brahmaputra is the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet, so India and Bangladesh lie downstream of whatever China builds on it.
- Cauvery and Mekedatu · on Interstate relations, councils, border and water disputes
The Cauvery Water Management Authority implements the sharing of the river between Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry as fixed by the tribunal and modified by the Supreme Court in 2018.
- The Ganga Waters Treaty and Farakka · on Bangladesh
The Farakka Barrage, commissioned in 1975 on the Ganga in West Bengal, diverts water into the Bhagirathi Hooghly to keep Kolkata port navigable, a purpose inside India rather than at the border.
- Mahanadi water dispute · on Interstate relations, councils, border and water disputes
The Mahanadi dispute between Chhattisgarh and Odisha went to a tribunal set up in 2018 under the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956, and the States may instead settle it by negotiation.
- The Sone agreement · on Interstate relations, councils, border and water disputes
The Sone agreement divides the water of the Sone, a right bank tributary that rises near Amarkantak in Madhya Pradesh and joins the Ganga near Patna.
- The Teesta and China · on Bangladesh
The Teesta is a river shared by India and Bangladesh, rising from Tso Lhamu lake in Sikkim.
- The Tungabhadra and the Krishna award · on Interstate relations, councils, border and water disputes
The Tungabhadra is a tributary of the Krishna, formed where the Tunga and Bhadra, which rise in the Western Ghats, join near Shivamogga.
- Yamuna sharing: Haryana to Rajasthan · on Interstate relations, councils, border and water disputes
The 1994 Upper Yamuna agreement divides the river's water among the basin States.