Pennar (Somasila) to Cauvery (Grand Anicut) Inter Basin Water Transfer Impact Assessment on Land Use/Land Cover Environment

Abstract

As a part of the National Water Development Authority (NWDA) proposal, the linking between Pennar and Cauvery is put forth with a single purpose of conserving water to the maximum extent possible. The present study covers with land use/land cover (LU/LC) along the alignment study area 17215.68 sq•km. All the details of these features have been studied using IRS-P6, LISSIII data to analyze the effect of land use and land cover. The land use and land cover data are classified into 9 categories such as crop land, current fallow, forest, plantations, built-up land, water bodies, scrub land, sandy area and others. The total area going to be capsized is 17215.68 sq•km out of which 10105.96 sq•km is proposed command area. The 244 villages have to be rehabilitated due to this canal whereas about 4597 villages will enjoy the fruits of this canal in the form of drinking water, ground water recharge and as an additional source of irrigation as well. The study indicated current fallow land of 5340.14 km 2 and 6307.98 km 2 of cropland can be brought under cultivation which is more than what NWDA estimated land that can be benefitted.