Bad Science and Bad Economics of River Linking

The linking of the Godavari and the Krishna rivers in Andhra Pradesh, which was inaugurated last year, has started showing true colors. Fishermen of Tadepally village (Guntur district) on the banks of the Prakasam Barrage are complaining that a new species of fish, which was not seen in the river before, was damaging their nets and scaring away other fishes. Consequently, they say their catch, and earnings, have dropped. This fish has spike ridden body and is not edible. The Krishna fishermen who were expecting ‘pulasa’ fish, a delicacy of the people in Godavari district, to flow into the Krishna after the linking of two rivers, are disappointed.

'Rakashi', the Devil fish - Image source: scroll.in/ 

Last year I had posted an article in my blog ‘When Godavari Meets Krishna’ which drew criticisms from many.( http://lakshmividya.blogspot.in/2015/09/when-godavari-meets-krishna.html )They said people like me are against development. What is wrong in river linking if we can divert excess water which in any case flows into a sea? The very notion that rivers have ‘excess flood water which wastefully flows into sea’ is absolutely wrong. Interlinking of rivers will imbalance the pH levels of river which results in the destruction of aquatic flora and fauna. Not only the rivers, but the estuaries and the adjoining coastal zones too will get equally affected.

A year after the implementation of the much hyped Godavari- Krishna project, the fishermen, who hailed the government, are now complaining! They are catching a non-native carnivorous fish which is feeding on other fishes. They named it ‘Rakashi’ which in Telugu means ‘devil’. They also complain that the Rakashi’s fins get entangled in their nets, and it takes at least two hours to extricate it. If 10 such fish get entangled in one net, it can take the whole day to get them out. Fishermen say they are often forced to cut their nets to extricate these fish. This fish is neither a native of Krishna nor of Godavari. Fishermen claim that they are finding this fish only after the Pattiseema Lift Irrigation Project started. Fishermen say they had to dump their catch of almost 3 tons because of this fish.Now they are worried about their nets which costs thousands of rupees. Who will compensate and what is the future of their traditional profession? 

Now the government is waking up from slumber. The Department of Fisheries, Andhra Pradesh, says it is ‘investigating’ the causes for the appearance of Rakashi fish and experts are ‘studying’ the fish!

River is not just a certain volume of water that Pattiseema pumps can lift and throw!! And calling it ‘river linking’ is absolutely misleading. We have not understood the meaning of development. For us development is, construction of more and more dams, drying of water bodies so that we get more land space, construction of cement structures, establishing more industries- all this without properly studying the ecological impact. The suggestions of the experts in the field are either not sought or ignored, as lobbies behind such projects know very well that these scientists will say ‘NO’ to them.  

Bad science and good economics has tuned into bad science and bad economics!