A COMPENDIUM ON STATE OF MAHAKALI BASIN 2017 Environics Trust Acknowledgments No environmental work is an end in itself, it’s a process to enhance learnings, building relationships with the communities and organisations for a broader alliance for a common good. We are thankful to numerous organisations, whom we have come across during this period and shared with them the need of developing river basin level understanding. At the same time we are extremely thankful to all the communities who took time out of their busy schedules for making the confluence conclaves a place to share their issues, thoughts and discuss development of their valleys. Their valuable inputs have really helped us frame issues acorss different valleys which one has to otherwise depend on the secondary sources. We are also thankful to the officials who gave time to discuss the issues as well as share district level statistics. Due to paucity of time and geographical attributes, we also relied on the RTI – thanks are due to all those officials who kept the communication alive and provided information. Team Environics 1 1. BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION Seven countries in the South Asian region share the Ganges, Indus and Barahmaputra river basin. These countries are India, China, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan with some form of treaties and cooperation on the issue of water management and development. http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/7/10/123 Each of the river basins is characterised by large populations with varying needs for agriculture, drinking water and energy needs. On the same hand the communities also face floods and many a times extreme events thus making them integral to the coping strategy. The involvement of people in presenting their views on river management has been minimal or even negligible, especially along the international boundaries. All these three river basins originate at the top cover the Himalayan range, portray their significance for the downstream communities. The river Mahakali is called by various names viz. Kali, Mahakali, Sarda along its course falling in India and Nepal. River Mahakali is a Himalayan catchment of Ghagra sub basin of the large Ganga Basin, originating from the Trans Himalayan region (>3600 m) ultimately draining the region through the Tarai-plains of Uttar Pradesh. Almost 1/3rd catchment area of Ganga basin lies in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. The catchment area of Mahakali is around 15,260 sq km, large part of which (9,943 sq km) lies in Uttarakhand and rest lies in Nepal. Mahakali is a trans- boundary/international river. In whole of South Asia, rivers have played a symbiotic role and also provided tangible benefits to communities dependent on them, became nucleus of socio-cultural- economic relations. With changing times these inter-linkages needs to be strengthen further. Numerous rivers and streams join the Mahakali from the higher, lesser and outer Himalayas and almost each of such confluence (at least of major rivers) acts as a confluence of socio-cultural beliefs and practices, trading centres and local-regional festivals. Before the river encounters Tanakpur barrage (Sarda Ghat) and later Banbasa Barrage where water of the river is diverted into the Sarda Canal system, the Kali River exhibits a free riverine character. The catchment boundaries of Mahakali/Sarda basin cut across administrative boundaries of ‘Far Western’ Himalayan region of Nepal comprising four districts of Baitadi, Dadheldhura, Kanchanpur and Darchula through major parts of Pitthoragarh (except the top most NW border), almost whole of Champawat, Bageshwar district (excluding upper part of Kapkot Tehsil) and very small parts of lower Almora and Udham Singh Nagar. In the upper reaches Mahakali/Sarda flows through narrow gorges passing through Garbyang, Tawaghat and Dharchula and spreads as it flows downwards in the lower hills. The Confluences The environmental setting of the region has many facets attached to it like, geographic peculiarities, ecological significance, and limitations of expansion, socio-cultural and economic ties and many other aspects. Tawaghat is the place where Kali receives Dhauliganga and flows towards Dharchula (a little upstream of this confluence, a 280 MW Dhauliganga project of NHPC on Dhauli river is Environics Trust | 2017 | State of Mahakali/Sharda Catchment of Ganga Basin in India and Nepal 1 located). Dharchula is a zone affected by recurring landslides and floods. The unprecedented rainfall event in June 2013 in Darchula of Nepal and Dhauli Valley are also not very old incidents. Dharchula in India and Darchula in Nepal may slightly differ in nomenclature but the towns and their inhabitants share similar landscapes, cultures and traditions. Gori Ganga, formed from Milam and Nanda Devi Glacier, flows down and joins Kali at Jauljibi. This is a common social and market place for communities of both sides – the bagad belt is synonymous to settlers from both sides. Few kilometres downstream from Jauljibi, River Chamliya of Nepal, flowing from Nepal’s Gurans Himal, meets Kali on its left bank – here a 30 MW hydroelectric project on Chamliya is waiting completion. Further down, Saryu is joined by Panar a few kilometres upstream of Saryu-Eastern Ramganga confluence at Rameshwar, afterwards the combined flows of Saryu-Panar-Eastern Ramganga join Kali at Pancheshwar. Lohawati from Lohaghat and Ladhiya from the Mournala hills flow to meet Sharda / Kali in its lower reaches. Dharchula & Darchula, separated by the Kali River, seem like a continuous settlement draped in the meanders. Khotila a settlement near Dharchula is also seen. Both ends of the river seen above are inflicted by landslides. Key Components and Purpose The Indo Nepal Treaty of Peace & Friendship 1950 has enabled ease of cross border movement of people without much formality and also maintained cordial social relations among communities. The ecological and socio-cultural similarities in the basin make it more or less a homogeneous unit. The Mahakali Treaty of 1996 is the key binding instrument between two countries on water sharing, river management and infrastructure development for which the modalities are worked out by the two Governments. While there are debates on the quantum of water releases with reference to establishment of first user right, this has not affected the community relations on both the sides. Also communities are the peripheral observers and have not the slightest role in the formalisation of decisions on trans-boundary river management. This effort/process is to interact with people and enable interaction among the communities from river valleys within the catchment boundaries of Mahakali/Sarda to increase understanding on social, environmental, cultural, economic, climate change and alike parameters which concern them the most. Given the importance of Sangams or confluences, the idea of confluence conclaves emerged across different locations in Uttarakhand and Nepal (7 in India and 5 in Nepal). Most often Environics Trust | 2017 | State of Mahakali/Sharda Catchment of Ganga Basin in India and Nepal 2 the people in adjacent valleys only meet during special occasions and regular interaction is thus restricted in time and space, these confluence conclaves intend to bring people together and initiate cross learning of issues surrounding different smaller valleys and river tributaries. Environics Trust | 2017 | State of Mahakali/Sharda Catchment of Ganga Basin in India and Nepal 3 To connect more people who want to contribute and increase cooperation among the communities on a variety of issues including river management, a voice based server named ‘Voices of Sharda’ is kept. The system relies completely on the mobile network to establish connection and allow user to use keypad to record or listen to the messages recorded over the platform. The aim of this initiative is to connect those communities which have issues to share, but have no means to share these with the outside world or communities in other valleys/districts. Last but not the least, the attempt is to develop a baseline understanding about this basin alongwith network of institutions, communities and organisations who work in the basin towards a common objective of community development and participatory research. Indo Nepal Joint Action Forum (INJAF) and partner organisation Nepal National Social Welfare Association based in Mahendranagar took forward the process in Far Western Development Region’s Mahakali zone. Environics Trust | 2017 | State of Mahakali/Sharda Catchment of Ganga Basin in India and Nepal 4 2 Contents 2. Landscape, Catchment and People ................................................................................................. 1 2.1 The Landscape ........................................................................................................................ 1 2.2 The Catchment ....................................................................................................................... 3 2.2.1 Important Rivers in the Mahakali Catchment ..................................................................... 10 2.3 Socio-Cultural Relations....................................................................................................... 20 2.4 Land and People ................................................................................................................... 21 2.5 Land Holdings and Land Use ..............................................................................................