• PROBLEMS AND PLANNING ASPECTS OF KHARIF . CHANNEL -- A CASE STUDY OF EAST GANGA CANAL PROJECT

Abstract

Irrigation is a vital input to increase the agricultural production to meet the food demand for rising population. Productivity of irrigated area is far more than that of unirrigated area. The artificial irrigation facility in an area can be provided either by utilising surface water or extraction from ground water reservoir,if both options are available in that area. In the present day technology, although, it is easier to extract ground water but over extraction leads to depletion of water table which leads to increased cost of pumping and_x000D_ sometimes failure of tube wells. Therefore, conjunctive use planning of surface and ground water is needed for irrigation in such an area. Surplus water available in the rivers during the monsoon season can be diverted for irrigation into the channels after careful planning of the crops type which can be grown in that period from the available amount of water. These off-taking channels may be called as-Kharif channels as they run during the kharif season only. Kharif crops can be irrigated through these channels and Rabi crops from ground water reservoir. Thus, kharif channels provide a workable solution to the conjunctive use planning of surface and ground water. In this dissertation, problems and planning aspects of East Ganga Canal Project have_x000D_ been discussed. East Ganga Canal takes off from left bank of river Ganga, upstream of existing Bhimgoda barrage at Haridwar and draws its supply during the monsoon season only to provide irrigation to paddy crops, mainly in district Bijnour.