{
 "no": 34,
 "id": "case-34",
 "sk": 20241225,
 "year": 2024,
 "date": "Approved 2021. Launched Dec 2024.",
 "cat": "Environment",
 "sev": "amber",
 "title": "Ken-Betwa river link. A tiger reserve for a headline",
 "stamp": "Warnings overridden",
 "human": {
  "v": "~<b>7,000</b> mostly tribal families across 21 to 22 villages to lose land and homes",
  "est": true
 },
 "cost": {
  "v": "<b>₹44,605 cr</b>; up to <b>2 to 4 million</b> trees felled; core Panna Tiger Reserve submerged",
  "est": true
 },
 "what": "The Ken-Betwa river-linking project, approved in 2021 and launched by the Prime Minister in December 2024, will dam the Ken to send water to the Betwa, submerging around 9,000 hectares, including roughly 5,800 hectares of the core of the Panna Tiger Reserve.",
 "dodge": "The Supreme Court's own Central Empowered Committee warned of irreversible damage, and experts called it a designed disaster, yet it was pushed through as a showpiece for river-linking. Madhya Pradesh bears the ecological and human cost, thousands of tribal families lose ancestral land, and the environmental warnings were simply overruled.",
 "ministers": [
  {
   "n": "Union Jal Shakti Ministry",
   "r": "Project lead"
  },
  {
   "n": "Bhupender Yadav",
   "r": "Environment Minister (clearances)"
  },
  {
   "n": "Narendra Modi",
   "r": "Prime Minister (launch)"
  }
 ],
 "pos": "The government says the project will bring water to drought-hit Bundelkhand and irrigate lakhs of hectares.",
 "alt": "Weigh irreversible tiger-habitat and forest loss honestly, exhaust local water options first, and secure genuine, informed consent from displaced tribal communities.",
 "sources": [
  {
   "label": "Panna core to be submerged",
   "url": "https://www.downtoearth.org.in/environment/ken-betwa-river-interlinking-core-forest-area-of-panna-tiger-reserve-will-come-under-water-warns-study-80885",
   "tier": 2,
   "archiveUrl": "http://web.archive.org/web/20251007153228/https://www.downtoearth.org.in/environment/ken-betwa-river-interlinking-core-forest-area-of-panna-tiger-reserve-will-come-under-water-warns-study-80885"
  },
  {
   "label": "'Politically motivated', say experts",
   "url": "https://thekashmirimages.com/2025/02/21/ken-betwa-link-project-politically-motivated-shouldve-never-been-approved-experts/",
   "tier": 3
  }
 ],
 "estimates": {
  "costInrCrore": 44605
 },
 "caseUrl": "https://whoisresponsible.xyz/case/case-34/"
}