In a sign that the debate is heating up over whether India should link its rivers, an activist and scholar was arrested in Tamil Nadu for releasing a book criticizing the planned move.
T. Jayaraman is the chief coordinator of the Anti-Methane Project Federation – and faces the charge of sedition for publishing a book while he was in prison, titled “Nadhigal Inaippum Aarugalai Pidingi Virkkum India’ ie ‘Interlinking of Rivers and India that Snatches and Sells Rivers’.
Following the devastating floods that displaced millions and killed thousands this year, the rhetoric over river-linking has assumed national importance. The Inter-Linking of Rivers (ILR) project has a personal sanction from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is expected to cost $87 billion.
If India goes ahead with the move, it would essentially create the world’s longest river through the construction of 30 mega-canals and 3,000 dams. These would link 14 rivers in North India and 16 in the West, Central and Southern zones, creating a river network over 12,500 kilometres long.
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