Damodar River: Difference between revisions
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===Damodar Valley Corporation=== |
===Damodar Valley Corporation=== |
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Several [[dam]]s have been constructed in the [[valley]], for the generation of [[hydroelectric]] power. The valley is called “the [[Ruhr]] of India”. [[Damodar Valley Corporation]], popularly known as DVC, came into being on July 7, 1948 by an Act of the [[Constituent Assembly of India]] (Act No. XIV of 1948) as the first multipurpose river valley project of independent India.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.dvcindia.org/dvcact.htm | title = Damodar Valley Corporation | accessdate = 2008-05-25 | last = | first = | work = Infrastructure – DVC Act | publisher =Damodar Valley Corporation}}</ref> It is modelled on the [[Tennessee Valley Authority]] of the USA.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.dvcindia.org/dvcformation.htm | title = Damodar Valley Corporation | accessdate = 2008-05-25 | last = | first = | work = Inrastructure – Formation | publisher =Damodar Valley Corporation}}</ref> |
Several [[dam]]s have been constructed in the [[valley]], for the generation of [[hydroelectric]] power. The valley is called “the [[Ruhr]] of India”. [[Damodar Valley Corporation]], popularly known as DVC, came into being on July 7, 1948 by an Act of the [[Constituent Assembly of India]] (Act No. XIV of 1948) as the first multipurpose river valley project of independent India.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.dvcindia.org/dvcact.htm | title = Damodar Valley Corporation | accessdate = 2008-05-25 | last = | first = | work = Infrastructure – DVC Act | publisher =Damodar Valley Corporation}}</ref> It is modelled on the [[Tennessee Valley Authority]] of the USA.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.dvcindia.org/dvcformation.htm | title = Damodar Valley Corporation | accessdate = 2008-05-25 | last = | first = | work = Inrastructure – Formation | publisher =Damodar Valley Corporation}}</ref> |
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[[File:Rundiha weir.jpg|thumb|[[randiha]][[weir]] on lower Damodar]] |
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The initial focus of the DVC were flood control, irrigation, generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, eco-conservation and afforestation, as well as job creation for the socio-economic well-being of the people residing in and around areas affected by DVC projects. However, over the past few decades, power generation has gained priority. Other objectives of the DVC remain part of its primary responsibility. The dams in the valley have a capacity to moderate peak floods of 650,000 to 250,000 ft<sup>3</sup>/s. DVC has created irrigation potential of 3640 km<sup>2</sup>. |
The initial focus of the DVC were flood control, irrigation, generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, eco-conservation and afforestation, as well as job creation for the socio-economic well-being of the people residing in and around areas affected by DVC projects. However, over the past few decades, power generation has gained priority. Other objectives of the DVC remain part of its primary responsibility. The dams in the valley have a capacity to moderate peak floods of 650,000 to 250,000 ft<sup>3</sup>/s. DVC has created irrigation potential of 3640 km<sup>2</sup>. |
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Revision as of 04:47, 5 January 2013
Template:Geobox Damodar River is a river flowing across the Indian states of Jharkhand and West Bengal. Rich in mineral resources, the valley is home to large-scale mining and industrial activity. Earlier known as the "River of Sorrows" because of its ravaging floods in the plains of West Bengal, the Damodar and its tributaries have been somewhat tamed with the construction of several dams.
Etymology
In some of the local languages of Jharkhand, Damodar River is called Damuda, damu means sacred and da means water.[1]
Course
The Damodar originates in Chandwa (community development block) in Palamau district, on the Chota Nagpur Plateau, and flows eastward for about 592 km through the states of Jharkhand and West Bengal to the estuary of the River Hooghly.[1][2] Metamorphic rocks form the watershed between the North Koel and the Damodar to the west of the Chandwa-Balumath road. This divide separates the Son and Damodar basins.[3]
The Damodar basin forms a trough between the Ranchi and Hazaribagh plateaux resulting from enormous fractures at their present edges, which caused the land between to sink to a great depth and preserved from denudation the Karanpura, Ramgarh and Bokaro coalfields. The northern boundary of the Damodar valley is steep as far as the southeastern corner of the Hazaribagh plateau. On the south of the trough the Damodar keeps close to the edge of the Ranchi plateau till it has passed Ramgarh, after which a turn to the northeast leaves on the right a wide and level valley on which the Subarnarekha begins to intrude, south of Gola till the Singhpur Hills divert it to the south. Further to the east the Damodar River passes tamely into the Manbhum sector of lowest step of the Chotanagpur plateau.[4]
The Damodar used to flow through Bengal on a direct west-to-east course and join the River Hughli near Kalna. However, it has changed its course, and in its lower reaches most of the water flows into the Mundeswari River, which combines with other rivers. Finally most of the Damodar water flows into the Rupnarayan River. The remaining mass of water flows through what is known as Damodar into the Hooghly south of Kolkata.[1]
Tributaries
It has a number of tributaries and subtributaries, such as Barakar, Konar, Bokaro, Haharo, Jamunia, Ghari, Guaia, Khadia and Bhera.[1][2]
The Barakar is the most important tributary of the Damodar. It originates near Padma in Hazaribagh district and flows through Jharkhand before meeting the Damodar near Dishergarh in West Bengal. The Damodar and the Barakar trifurcates the Chota Nagpur plateau. The rivers pass through hilly areas with great force, sweeping away whatever lies in their path. Two bridges on the Grand Trunk Road near Barhi in Hazaribagh district were torn down by the Barakar: the great stone bridge in 1913 and the subsequent iron bridge in 1946.[5]
River of Sorrows
The Chota Nagpur Plateau receives an average annual rainfall of around 1400 mm, almost all of it in the monsoon months between June and August.[6] The huge volume of water that flows down the Damodar and its tributaries during the monsoons used to be a fury in the upper reaches of the valley. In the lower valley it used to overflow its banks and flood large areas.
Damodar River was earlier known as the "River of Sorrows"[7] as it used to flood many areas of Bardhaman, Hughli, Howrah and Medinipur districts. Even now the floods sometimes affect the lower Damodar Valley, but the havoc it wreaked in earlier years is now a matter of history.
The floods were virtually an annual ritual. In some years the damage was probably more. Many of the great floods of the Damodar are recorded in history — 1770, 1855, 1866, 1873–74, 1875–76, 1884–85, 1891–92, 1897, 1900, 1907, 1913, 1927, 1930, 1935 and 1943. In four of these floods (1770, 1855, 1913 and 1943) most of Bardhaman town was flooded.
In 1789 an agreement was signed between Maharaja Kirti Chand of Burdwan and the East India Company wherein the Maharaja was asked to pay an additional amount of Rs. 193,721 for the construction and maintenance of embankment to prevent floods. However, these ran into dispute and in 1866 and 1873, The Bengal Embankment Act was passed, transferring the powers to build and maintain embankment to the government.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5d/Damodar_River.jpg/260px-Damodar_River.jpg)
So great was the deavstation every year that the floods passed into folklore, as the following Bhadu song testifies:
- We have sown the crops in Asar
- We will bring Bhadu in Bhadra.
- Floods have swollen the Damodar
- The sailing boats cannot sail.
- O Damodar! We fall at your feet
- Reduce the floods a little.
- Bhadu will come a year later
- Let the boats sail on your surface.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/45/Damodar_River_in_its_upper_reaches.jpg/250px-Damodar_River_in_its_upper_reaches.jpg)
Damodar Valley
The Damodar Valley is spread across Hazaribagh, Koderma, Giridih, Dhanbad, Bokaro and Chatra districts in Jharkhand and Bardhaman and Hooghly districts in West Bengal and partially covers Palamu, Ranchi, Lohardaga and Dumka districts in Jharkhand and Howrah, Bankura and Purulia districts in West Bengal with a command area of 24,235 km².
The Damodar valley is rich in coal. It is considered as the prime centre of coking coal in the country. Massive deposits are found in the central basin spreading over 2,883 km2. The important coalfields in the basin are Jharia, Raniganj, West Bokaro, East Bokaro, Ramgarh, South Karanpura and North Karanpura.[8]
The Damodar Valley is one of the most industrialised parts of India. Three integrated steel plants (Bokaro, Burnpur and Durgapur) of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and other factories are in the valley.
Damodar Valley Corporation
Several dams have been constructed in the valley, for the generation of hydroelectric power. The valley is called “the Ruhr of India”. Damodar Valley Corporation, popularly known as DVC, came into being on July 7, 1948 by an Act of the Constituent Assembly of India (Act No. XIV of 1948) as the first multipurpose river valley project of independent India.[9] It is modelled on the Tennessee Valley Authority of the USA.[10]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b6/Rundiha_weir.jpg/220px-Rundiha_weir.jpg)
The initial focus of the DVC were flood control, irrigation, generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, eco-conservation and afforestation, as well as job creation for the socio-economic well-being of the people residing in and around areas affected by DVC projects. However, over the past few decades, power generation has gained priority. Other objectives of the DVC remain part of its primary responsibility. The dams in the valley have a capacity to moderate peak floods of 650,000 to 250,000 ft3/s. DVC has created irrigation potential of 3640 km2.
The first dam was built across the Barakar River, a tributary of the Damodar river at Tilaiya in 1953. The second one was built across the Konar River, another tributary of the Damodar river at Konar in 1955. Two dams across the rivers Barakar and Damodar were built at Maithon in 1957 and Panchet in 1959. Both the dams are some 8 km upstream of the confluence point of the rivers. These four major dams are controlled by DVC. Durgapur Barrage was constructed downstream of the four dams in 1955, across the Damodar river at Durgapur in 1955, with head regulators for canals on either side for feeding an extensive system of canals and distributaries.[11][12] In 1978, the government of Bihar (that was before the formation of the state of Jharkhand) constructed the Tenughat Dam across the Damodar river outside the control of DVC.[13] It proposes constructing a dam across the Barakar river at Belpahari in Jharkhand state.[14]
References
- ^ a b c d Chattopadhyay, Akkori, Bardhaman Jelar Itihas O Lok Sanskriti (History and Folk lore of Bardhaman District.), Template:Bn icon, Vol I, pp. 21- 26, Radical Impression. ISBN 81-85459-36-3
- ^ a b Sabharwal, L.R., I.F.S., Conservator of Forests, Bihar, Notes as part of Appendix IV to Report of the Damodar Flood Enquiry Committee, 1943, republished in Rivers of Bengal, a compilation, Vol III, 2002, p. 236, West Bengal District Gazeteers, Government of West Bengal
- ^ "Gazetteer of Palamu District". Retrieved 2012-04-26.
- ^ Hazaribagh by Edward Lister, first published 1923, reprint by Bibliobazar 2009, ISBN 1-115-79277-6, ISBN 978-1-115-79277-6
- ^ Houlton, Sir John, Bihar the Heart of India, 1949, p. 117, Orient Longmans Ltd.
- ^ "Damodar Valley". About the Region – Damodar Basin. Ministry of Environments and Forests. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
- ^ Bose, Dr. N.K., The Problems of Damodar, Appendix IV to Report of the Damodar Flood Enquiry Committee, 1943, republished in Rivers of Bengal, a compilation, Vol III, 2002, p. 204
- ^ "Mineral Resources and Coal Mining". Retrieved 2010-05-03.
- ^ "Damodar Valley Corporation". Infrastructure – DVC Act. Damodar Valley Corporation. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
- ^ "Damodar Valley Corporation". Inrastructure – Formation. Damodar Valley Corporation. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
- ^ "Damodar Valley Corporation". Generation – Overview. Damodar Valley Corporation. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
- ^ "Damodar Valley Corporation". Generation – Overview – Dams and Barrages. Damodar Valley Corporation. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
- ^ "The Associated Programme On Flood Management" (PDF). Case Study -- India: Flood Management – Damodar River Basin. World Meteorological Organization. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
- ^ Dutta, Indrani. "DVC plans to double capacity". The Hindu Business Line 10 March 2001. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
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