Cauvery body seeks Centre’s nod to conduct environment assessment

Sub: Geo

Sec: Indian physical geo

Context:

Karnataka’s Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Limited (CNNL) is seeking approval from the Union Ministry of Environment to proceed with an Environmental Impact assessment (EIA) and develop an Environment Management Plan for the Mekedatu balancing reservoir-cum-drinking water project.
Tamil Nadu is opposed to the project.

About Mekedatu Project:

It is a multi-purpose (drinking water and power) project proposed by Karnataka, which involves building a balancing reservoir near Kanakapura in Ramanagara district, Karnataka.
It is about 90 km away from Bengaluru and 4 km ahead of the border with Tamil Nadu.
The project is proposed at the confluence of the Cauvery River with its tributary Arkavathi.
The plan involves building a 99-metre-high, 735-metre-long concrete gravity dam, an underground powerhouse, and a water conductor system.
The capacity of the dam is 66,000 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) of water

River Cauvery (Kaveri):

It is known as ‘Ponni’ in Tamil, and it is the fourth-largest river in southern India.
It is a sacred river of southern India. It rises on Brahmagiri Hill of the Western Ghats in southwestern Karnataka state, flows in a southeasterly direction through the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, and descends the Eastern Ghats in a series of great falls and drains into the Bay of Bengal through Pondicherry.
Left Bank Tributary: Arkavathi, Hemavathi, Shimsa, and Harangi.
Right Bank Tributary: Lakshmantirtha, Suvarnavati, Noyil, Bhavani, Kabini, and Amaravathi.

Source: TH