Mahanadi River
Mahanadi River, great river in central India, rising in the hills of Chhattisgarh state and flowing eastward through Odisha state. The Mahanadi (Sanskrit maha, meaning “great,” and nadi, meaning “river”) follows a total course of 560 miles (900 km) and has an estimated drainage area of 51,000 square miles (132,100 square km). The Mahanadi Basin includes small portions of the states of Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra.
Physiography
The Mahanadi is one of the most active silt-depositing streams on the Indian subcontinent. Its upper course runs northward as an insignificant stream, draining the eastern Chhattisgarh Plain and flowing past the state’s capital, Raipur. After receiving the Seonath (or Shivnath) River, below Baloda Bazar, the Mahanadi turns eastward and enters Odisha state, its flow augmented by the drainage of hills to the north and south. In this part of its course the river is joined by the Jonk, Hasdeo, and Mand tributaries. At Sambalpur the Hirakud Dam on the river has formed an artificial lake 35 miles (55 km) long; the dam has several hydroelectric generators. Below the dam, the Mahanadi turns southward along a tortuous course and pierces the Eastern Ghats through a forest-clad gorge. As it begins its lower course, it receives the Ong and Tel rivers.
Various rivers in ancient Hindu texts have been identified as the Mahanadi, among them the Nilotpala, Kanak Nandini, and Mahasweta. In one myth, the Mahanadi is believed to have been formed when the warrior sage Parashurama struck the earth with his axe.
Bending eastward, the Mahanadi enters the Odisha plains near Cuttack and enters the Bay of Bengal at False Point by several channels near the major seaport town of Paradip. The distributaries formed by the river’s delta include the Kathjodi and the Birupa. The river supplies several irrigation canals, mainly near Cuttack. Close to one of its mouths is the famous pilgrimage site of Puri. Farther up the coast is Konark, the site of an ancient temple dedicated to the sun.
Damming the Mahanadi
A government-appointed tribunal was formed in 2018 to arbitrate between Odisha and Chhattisgarh on the sharing of the river’s waters. Since 2016 the states have been involved in an acrimonious dispute in which Odisha has alleged that Chhattisgarh illegally built barrages and dams on the Mahanadi, which has reduced the flow of water into the Hirakud reservoir. Such actions have disrupted the supply of water needed downstream for irrigation, drinking water, and environmental integrity.
The first batch of concrete for the multipurpose earthen Hirakud Dam was laid in 1948 by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of independent India. The dam has been fully operational since 1990. The primary purpose of damming the Mahanadi was to control periodic flooding, which had devastated large parts of the delta and earned the river the epithet “the sorrow of Odisha.” The dam supports two power stations, which together can generate 347.5 megawatts of electricity. A canal system irrigates several districts in Odisha. The Hirakud Dam also provides water to various industrial plants and nourishes a biodiverse habitat that is home to about 130 bird species and more than 50 fish species.
Other projects across the Mahanadi include the Gangrel Dam (also called the Ravishankar Dam) in Dhamtari district, Chhattisgarh. It irrigates surrounding areas, generates power, and supplies water to a major steel plant located at Bhilai. The Dudhawa Dam, also in Chhattisgarh, enables irrigation and provides drinking water.