IRRIGATION IN MADHYA PRADESH 026.271 .t 6 KO 071906 IRRIGATION IN MADHYA PRADESH PUBLISHED FOR THE IRRIGATION BRANCH, P. W. D., MADHYA PRADESH BY THE DffiECTORATE OF INFORMATION & PUBLICITY, M. P. "FOREWORD This brochure is intended to give a bird's eye-view of the historical back­ ground of State Irrigation in the four .constituent units of the State and the general progress of the works during the· first plan . and up-to-date in the second plan. 'J;'he .State possesses ·immense water resources. in . her rivers. How- ever, at the commencement of the .:f'irst Five-Year Plan the total quantity ·of ·water uti1ised for irrigation in the State was only about 3 miJlion acre ft., which 'is less than ·two per cent of the normal run-off. The area irrigated .. was 22 lakh acres (comprising 8.8 Jakh acres by the State works and 13.2 Iakh acres by private sources) which cons­ _tituted a mere six per cent of the State's cultivated area. As against this the areas irrigated in some of the other States were 37.1 per cent in Punjab, 35.5 per cent in Madras, and 29.8 per · cent in Uttar Pradesh. State Irrigation in the Mahakoshal districts of Madhya Pradesh dates back almost to the start of this century but there was a long hiatus in its activities from 1930 to the start of the first plan. In the Madhya Bharat districts the irrigation works were confined to the Gwalior region and were constructed mainly in the two decades preceding the second world war. Vindhya Pradesh and Bhopal had hardly any state irrigation when the first plan started. It was with this background that the First Five-Year Plan was launched in the four con­ stituent units of Madhya Pradesh. A good part of the plan period, however, had to be devoted to necessary detailed surveys and investigations before the projects could be actually taken in hand. Similar was the case with the second plan schemes whose progress was further adversely affected by the acute shortage of technical personnel and by the State's reorganisation. In spite of these major bottlenecks, Government's efforts to make agriculture independent of the vagaries of the weather made substantial progress during the eight years since the commencement of the first plan. The total irrigation potential (und,er State works) has grown from about 10 lakh acres to 11.5 lakh acres. This is expected to be increased by a further 1,30,000 acres in the next two years. The State is expected to spend about Rs. 35 crores, i.e., Rs. 15 crores on Major, Medium and Minor Irrigation Projects and Rs. 20 crores on the Chambal Scheme which amounts to about 20 per cent of the State's total outlay on the second plan. This may be compared with an expendi­ ture of Rs. 10.00 crore, inclusive of the Chambal Project, incurred on irrigation works during the first plan period. This impressive increase in the working capacity of the State in the field of Irrigation enables us to plan on a much bigger and bolder scale for the future. Madhya Pradesh is among the important granaries of the country and it has been Government's endeavour not only to maintain this Status but to fully harness the State's potentialities in order that the State may continue to make her contribution in the battle of food in ever­ increasing measure. The brochure sets out in brief the efforts being made in the sphere of irrigation. S. L. TIWARI 6 Minister for P.W.D., M.P. IRRIGATION IN MADHYA PRADESH The economy of Madhya Pradesh being Baghelkhand have lighter soil with a pro-. · mainly agricutural, the provision of ade­ portion of sand. The Narmada Valley· quate water. for irrigation purposes is- of abounds in deep alluvial deposits of primary importance for the development of extreme richness and the Chhattisgarh plains agriculture. The average annual rainfall, have sandy yellow soil. varying from 28 inches in the north-western parts to about 68 inches in the eastern The main food crops are wheat in Malwu, districts, is irregular and unevenly distributed. Bhopal, the Narmada Valley, Chhatarpur The importance, therefore, of irrigetion and Satna ; rice in the Chhattisgarh tract, through canals, tanks, wells, etc., can hardly be I .over-emphasised. DISTRIBUTIOH OF DRAIHA6E AREA • s. DRAIN AGE' The mail\ physical No. RIVERBASIN AREA IN M.P. SQ. MIL FS regions of the state are 1 Godavari 24.300 the Malwa Plateau, the 2 Moh4nadl 32.000 3 Taptl 2.200 Gird region, the Narmada 4 Mohl 2,400 5 Xanhar 1.370 Valley, the Satpura 6 Narmada 27.400 ridge and the Chhattis­ 1 Chambal 29.700 8 Slndh 10 320 garh plain formed by 9 Betw 7.560 10 Ohoaarl 2,530 the rivers of the Maha­ 11 Ken 9.670 12 Tona 4,620 riadi system. The Malwa 13 Son 12,350 region possesses rich 14 Riband --4.620 black :cotton soil, while _L . 171.040 Gird, Buf!delkhand and · · . ·---------- 7 Wainganga Valley, Shahdol, Sidhi and Rewa ; region of the former Madhya Pradesh and jowar in Bhopal, Nimar, Ujjain, Shajapur, the Gwalior region of the erstwhile state of Mandsaur and Guna, and pulses all over Mc.dhya Bharat can only claim somewhat the state. Amongst the important cash fairly developed state irrigation facilities. crops are cotton in Nimar and Malwa In Mahakoshal it was at the dawn of the and sugarcane and oilseeds all over the century, i.e., in the year 1902, that an orga­ state. nisation in the form of an Irrigation Circle was set up in pursuance of the recommenda­ ·The important rivers of the state are the tions of the Irrigation Commission to under­ Chamba,l, B.etw\1 •. Ken, Son, Narmada, take construction of State Irrigation works Wainganga,· Indravati, Sabri and· Mahanadi to serve as an insurance against famine. By :.nd they possess immense potential fm the end of 1928, a s'um of Rs 640 1akh (on irrigation and power. The average annual both the Mahakoshal and Vidarbha regions) run-off of the Madhya Pradesh rivers has or more than double of what was contem-· been e~timatcd at 143 million acre feet, plated by the Irrigation Commission, had of which about 45 million acre feet can be been spent on the State Irrigation 'works used for irrigation. In view, however, of the slow development of irrigation, the State Government appoint­ Nature has thus endowed this state with ed a Committee in 1927, which inter alia, plenty of valuable resource~. Properly recommended that no new works should be exploited they could frame the foundatior. undertaken on any appreciable scale until of a vibrant economy. the Government was satisfied with the development of and the return received HISTORY Mahakoshal from the works already constructed. .As _a re_sult of these recommendations, all the Of the four constituent units of the new new construction works were stopped and state of Madhya Pradesh, the Chhattisgarh the Irrigation Branch of the P. W. 8 abolished. In 1932, there were 22 maior and 74 minor works capable of irri­ gating an area of about 8,1 0. 000 acres with 3,000 mi!es of canal system The notable amongst the major projects thus completed were the Mu­ ramsiiJi Reser­ voir and the Mahanadi. Th• Siplum Spillwa11 of tM Mura?MiUi Reeervoir (Raipuf') Canal system, inigating an area of 2,10 000 Between 1632 and ·~ 1951, two medium acres in the Raipur Distrtct, lhe Tandu1a irrigation works. the Muramnala and the Reservoir irrigating 1,65.000 acres in the Chichbund, were compJettd under the Post· Durg District. the Kharung and Maniari War Reconstruction Programme. Reserv~irs irrigating 1,70,000 ceres in the Madhya Bharat Bilaspur District, and the Wainganga Canal itrigating 70.000 acres in the Balaghat The development of irrigation in the erst­ District. while state of Madhya Bharat was confined 9 to the period between the two Wor;d Wars. provides drinking water to the Greater The first major work to be- constructtd was Gwalior and caters to the need of several a masonry dam named Madhosagar, also industries a!so. Other important projects, known as the Tigra dam, across the Sank later undertaken~ inCluded the Pagara dam river in 1917, which, however, breached and the Bhind Canal in . the Morena and the same year of its completion and was Bhind districts, which were completed in restored in 1920. Besides letting out 1927. The Rampur reservoir in the Guna water through the Tigra canal, this reservoir district wascompleted in 1931, Aoda dam A view of the a.utomatio gates for flood water diapo1al Paoart~ Dt~m (Mor~a) comtructed in 1927. It irrigat,. 65,000 acre• tllrouoh '"' Bhind Canal. Opposite; Tandula. Reser­ voir ( Durg), tht · biggest so far constructed in Ma.dh:ua Pradesh 7'he Ha-rtri Reservoi1' (Gwalio-r) in the Morena district in 1934 and Parwati mentioning. There was lack of a unified Project, comprising the Harsi reservoir, the and concerted drive and, till 1949. there Kaketo dam and Mastura canal in Gwalior were only a few scattered minor "orks in district in 1937. These, together with a the Datia and Satna districts, a number large number of small tanks spread over of poorly maintained tanks and bandhis the northern Madhya Bharat region, possessed in the Chhatarpur and Tikamgarh districts an irrigation potential of about 2.01 lakh in the V indhya Pradesh region and only acres, the total length of canals being about two irrigation tanks-the Palakinati and 1.000 miles.