Narmada and MP Rivers: Dams and Water Projects

The correct answer is B, the Narmada. The Narmada is about 1,312 kilometres long in all, and roughly 1,077 kilometres of that course lies inside Madhya Pradesh, which makes it by a wide margin the longest river of the state. It is also the longest west-flowing river of India, and it is called the lifeline of Madhya Pradesh because it crosses the state from Amarkantak in the east to the Gujarat border in the west.

Option A, the Chambal, is an important Malwa river and the one with the ravines, but it leaves the state for Rajasthan and the Yamuna long before it can match the Narmada's length within Madhya Pradesh. Option C, the Betwa, rises near Raisen and flows north into Uttar Pradesh to join the Yamuna at Hamirpur. Option D, the Tapti, rises at Multai in Betul district and spends most of its course in Maharashtra and Gujarat. In the exam the usual contest is Narmada against Chambal, and the answer is the Narmada.

The correct answer is A, the Tawa. The Tawa rises in the Satpura, drains the Pachmarhi and Betul country and joins the Narmada at Bandrabhan in Narmadapuram district; it is the largest of the Narmada's tributaries. The Tawa dam built on it is one of the major irrigation works of the state, and the Tawa reservoir borders the Satpura Tiger Reserve.

Option B, the Banjar, drains the Kanha country in Mandla and Balaghat and is a genuine tributary but much smaller. Option C, the Kolar, is a small left bank tributary in the Sehore and Raisen tract on which the Kolar dam supplies water to Bhopal. Option D, the Sher, is one of the short northern tributaries in the Narsinghpur area. The names worth carrying into the hall are the Tawa first, then the Burhner, Banjar, Sher, Shakkar, Dudhi, Kolar and Hiran.

The correct answer is A, Jabalpur. Bargi stands on the Narmada in Jabalpur district, in the upper part of the valley, and it was the first of the big dams of the Narmada valley scheme to be finished. It supplies irrigation and power and its reservoir is used for fisheries and tourism, but like the later dams it also displaced a large number of villages, which is why it appears in questions on rehabilitation as well as on geography.

Option B, Khandwa, is the district of the Indira Sagar and Omkareshwar projects, both downstream and both later. Option C, Narmadapuram, formerly Hoshangabad, is the district of the Tawa dam on the Narmada's largest tributary. Option D, Mandla, lies on the upper Narmada above Bargi but has no major dam of its own. For the exam remember three pairs: Bargi with Jabalpur, Indira Sagar with Khandwa and Maheshwar with Khargone.

The correct answer is C, the Narmada. The Indira Sagar dam stands on the Narmada at Narmadanagar, near Punasa in Khandwa district, and its reservoir holds the largest volume of water of any reservoir in the country. It is a multipurpose project, giving irrigation to the Nimar plain and power from its station, and it is the upstream regulator for the Omkareshwar, Maheshwar and Sardar Sarovar dams further down the same river.

Option A, the Chambal, carries the Gandhi Sagar dam in Mandsaur district, part of the Chambal valley project shared with Rajasthan. Option B, the Son, carries the Bansagar project near Deolond in Shahdol district, shared with Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Option D, the Betwa, carries the Rajghat dam in Ashoknagar district, built jointly with Uttar Pradesh. Keep Indira Sagar, Khandwa and the Narmada together, because questions ask for any one of the three given the others.

The correct answer is A, the Son. The Bansagar dam is on the Son near Deolond in Shahdol district, in the Baghelkhand country of north-eastern Madhya Pradesh, and the project is a joint venture of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which is why the same dam turns up in the question papers of all three states. It gives irrigation and power, and its canals carry water towards Rewa and Satna.

Option B, the Tons, is a tributary of the Ganga in the Rewa country and carries the waterfalls of the Vindhyan scarps, not the Bansagar dam. Option C, the Ken, is the river of the Ken-Betwa link project with the Daudhan dam at Chhatarpur. Option D, the Narmada, carries Bargi, Indira Sagar, Omkareshwar and Maheshwar. Note also that the Son rises at Amarkantak, the same plateau that gives birth to the Narmada, but flows east instead of west.

The correct answer is A, Mandsaur. The Gandhi Sagar dam is the uppermost of the four works of the Chambal valley project and stands on the Chambal in Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh. Below it, in Rajasthan, come the Rana Pratap Sagar, the Jawahar Sagar and the Kota barrage, which makes the project a standing example of a joint undertaking between two states.

Option B, Ratlam, is a Malwa district on the railway but has no dam of this size. Option C, Morena, lies far downstream where the Chambal has cut its ravines and where the National Chambal Sanctuary protects the gharial. Option D, Ujjain, is on the Shipra, a tributary of the Chambal, and is known for the Simhastha fair rather than for a dam. The order of the four Chambal works from upstream to downstream is a favourite sequencing question, so learn it as Gandhi Sagar, Rana Pratap Sagar, Jawahar Sagar and Kota barrage.

The correct answer is C, 1979. The tribunal was constituted in 1969 under the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act to settle the sharing of the Narmada, and it delivered its award in 1979, dividing the river's water among Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan and fixing the height and the rehabilitation terms of the Sardar Sarovar. Every later dispute over the project has been argued with reference to that award.

Option A, 1972, and option B, 1975, fall during the years the tribunal was still hearing the four states. Option D, 1987, is close to the period when construction on the Sardar Sarovar gathered pace and when the movements against displacement were taking shape, but it is not the year of the award. The two dates to keep in order are 1969 for the setting up and 1979 for the award; the Narmada Bachao Andolan came later, from the middle of the 1980s.

The correct answer is A, the Sardar Sarovar. The Sardar Sarovar is the terminal dam of the Narmada valley scheme, in Gujarat, and its reservoir submerges villages upstream in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. From the middle of the 1980s the Narmada Bachao Andolan, in which Medha Patkar and Baba Amte were the best known figures, campaigned against the displacement and for the resettlement of the people affected, and the dispute went through the Supreme Court more than once.

Option B, the Bansagar project on the Son, is a joint scheme of three states and raised no comparable movement. Option C, the Gandhi Sagar on the Chambal, belongs to an earlier generation of dams in Mandsaur district. Option D, the Tawa dam in Narmadapuram district, is on the Narmada's largest tributary and is remembered for irrigation. In general awareness papers the movement is also asked as an example of an environmental and rehabilitation movement alongside the Chipko and Silent Valley movements.

The correct answer is A, Jabalpur. At Bhedaghat, a short distance from Jabalpur, the Narmada falls over a ledge as the Dhuandhar, so called because the spray rises like smoke, and then runs for a few kilometres between white and pink marble cliffs, the Marble Rocks. The gorge is the best known river scenery in the state and is regularly asked with its district.

Option B, Rewa, is the waterfall district of the Vindhyan scarps, with the Chachai, Keoti and Bahuti falls, and papers often use it against Bhedaghat to see whether a candidate separates the Narmada gorge from the sandstone scarps. Option C, Anuppur, is the district of Amarkantak, where the river rises. Option D, Khargone, is the district of the Maheshwar project on the lower Narmada. Remember the sequence along the river: Amarkantak in Anuppur, Bargi and Bhedaghat in Jabalpur, Tawa at Narmadapuram, Indira Sagar and Omkareshwar in Khandwa and Maheshwar in Khargone.

The correct answer is B, the Wainganga. The Wainganga rises in the Seoni district of the Satpura and flows south through Balaghat into Maharashtra, where it joins the Wardha to form the Pranhita, a tributary of the Godavari. With it the Pench and the Kanhan, which drain the Chhindwara country, belong to the same basin, so the south-east corner of Madhya Pradesh sends its water to the Bay of Bengal by way of the Godavari.

Option A, the Ken, flows north from the Panna and Chhatarpur country to the Yamuna, so it is in the Ganga basin. Option C, the Tons, drains the Rewa plateau and joins the Ganga directly, again the Ganga basin. Option D, the Sindh, is another northward river of the Gwalior and Shivpuri tract that reaches the Yamuna. The four basins of the state are worth memorising as a list: Ganga, Narmada, Tapi and Godavari.

The correct answer is B, the Ken. The Ken-Betwa link takes surplus water from the Ken, which is the river with the larger supply, and carries it by canal to the Betwa basin. Its main structure is therefore on the Ken: the Daudhan dam in Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh. The project was approved in December 2021, is shared by Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, and is the first river interlinking scheme taken up under the National Perspective Plan.

Option A, the Betwa, is the receiving river, not the donor, and that direction is exactly what the question tests. Option C, the Dhasan, is a tributary of the Betwa in the Bundelkhand country and is not part of the link's main works. Option D, the Sindh, is a separate northward river of the Gwalior region. One more fact is often asked with this project: part of the submergence falls inside the Panna Tiger Reserve, which is the main objection raised against it.

The correct answer is B, the Gulf of Khambhat. The Narmada flows west down the rift valley between the Vindhya and the Satpura, crosses Gujarat and empties into the Gulf of Khambhat on the Arabian Sea through a broad estuary. It makes an estuary rather than a delta because the rift gives it hard rock banks and little silt, and the tides in the gulf are strong enough to carry away what silt arrives. The Tapti, the state's other west-flowing river, reaches the same gulf.

Option A, the Gulf of Kachchh, lies further north-west and receives no major peninsular river. Option C, the Bay of Bengal, receives the water of the state's Ganga basin and Godavari basin rivers, but not the Narmada. Option D, the Rann of Kachchh, is a salt marsh into which the Luni drainage of Rajasthan dies, not the mouth of any large river. The pair most often confused in papers is the Narmada and the Tapti, and both answer to the Gulf of Khambhat.