Not many years ago, river linking was a concept but it is becoming a reality in the country. Discuss the advantages of river linking and its possible impact on the environment.
Approach · directive: “discuss”
What it asks · Discuss the benefits of interlinking rivers and the environmental risks that come with moving water between basins.
The question has 2 parts — answer each
- Discuss the advantages of river linking
- Discuss its possible impact on the environment
Open with · India's rainfall and rivers are unevenly spread across space and time, with floods in some basins and droughts in others; river linking aims to move surplus water to deficit regions.
Cover
- Irrigation and drought relief: water from surplus basins can serve dry regions, raise irrigated area and stabilise farm output.
- Flood moderation: storages and diversions on the Ganga-Brahmaputra system can reduce floods in Bihar, Assam and eastern Uttar Pradesh.
- Other gains: drinking water, hydropower, navigation, groundwater recharge and industrial supply.
- Ecological cost: dams and canals submerge forests and displace people; the Ken-Betwa link raises concern over the Panna tiger landscape.
- River health: changed flows, less silt and freshwater to deltas and estuaries, salinity ingress and effects on fish and wetlands.
- Other concerns: huge cost, long gestation, inter-State water disputes, effects on neighbours such as Bangladesh and Nepal, and climate change altering flows.
- Alternatives: watershed development, rainwater harvesting, drip irrigation and demand management, alongside carefully assessed links.
Close with · River linking can ease scarcity and floods, but only with scientific study of each link, environmental and social safeguards and consensus among States.
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2017, GS Paper III — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer · 231 words (UPSC limit 150) · Minimalist IAS
India's rain is concentrated in a few monsoon months and uneven across basins, so some regions flood while others face drought; the National Perspective Plan (1980) proposed 30 links, the Supreme Court in 2012 directed time-bound implementation, and Ken-Betwa became the first link taken up.
Advantages
- Irrigation and drought relief: water from surplus basins reaches dry regions, expanding irrigated area and stabilising farm output.
- Flood moderation: storages and diversions on the Ganga-Brahmaputra system can reduce floods in Bihar, Assam and eastern Uttar Pradesh.
- Other gains: drinking water, hydropower, inland navigation, groundwater recharge and industrial supply.
Environmental impact
- Submergence and displacement: dams and canals drown forests and villages; the Ken-Betwa link would submerge part of the Panna tiger landscape.
- River health: altered flows, less silt and freshwater reaching deltas and estuaries, salinity ingress, and damage to fish migration and wetlands.
- Uncertain science: the idea of a permanently 'surplus' basin is contested, and climate change is altering rainfall and glacier-fed flows.
- Other concerns: huge cost and long gestation, inter-State water disputes, and effects on neighbours such as Bangladesh and Nepal.
Way forward
- Take up each link only after independent environmental and social assessment, once cheaper alternatives such as watershed development, rainwater harvesting, drip irrigation and demand management have been tried.
River linking can ease scarcity and floods, but only with scientific study of each link, environmental and social safeguards and consensus among States.
Written by Minimalist IAS from facts checked at source (how we verify) — a little fuller than exam length, so every part of the question is covered; in the hall, keep the structure and trim the detail. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.