UP plans to revive dried river in Bundelkhand

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh is set to revive a river which dried up some time ago in the parched and drought-prone Bundelkhand region.
Come Saturday and laborers in Mahoba district will dredge out mud and put the Chandrawal river on a revival course.
The rain-fed river which once originated in Mahoba and flowed nearly 70km across Hamirpur and Banda districts to merge with the Ken river has turned into a pale shadow of its glorious past.
“But for a few small streams that snake here and there, the river has almost died. We would now be taking up the first stretch of 10km,’’ said chief development officer, Mahoba, Shiv Narain.
The project which will be taken up under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme may not only quench thirst of millions of people in three districts but also prove to be an irrigational boon in an otherwise drought-prone region.
The plan is elaborate. Apart from dredging out mud, local administration in Mahoba, Hamirpur and Banda would also be getting small and big ponds dug up along the river. This would ensure the river gets recharged through groundwater.
The Tirath Sagar dam close to the rive course is being desilted to increase its capacity. Sources in district administration said coordination would be established with the department of forest and irrigation for ensuring that the project is conducted smoothly.
This comes a couple of months after river activist Rajendra Singh met chief minister Akhilesh Yadav seeking his intervention in revival of Chandrawal. “Its rejuvenation is of utmost significance to the region,’’ Singh said.
Chandrawal has a history of its own. It is said that King Parmar Deo, the king of Chandela dynasty in Mahoba, freed his daughter Princess Chandrawati from the clutches of Rajput king Prithviraj Chauhan with the help of a small army. The Chandela soldiers who took refuge on the banks of the river which was overflowing so Chauhan could not cross the river and conceded back to Delhi. The river was later named after the princess.