India’s environmental laws treat the Sharavathi and Varahi pumped storage projects as if they are being proposed on a tabula rasa— a blank, untouched terrain. In reality, they are layered onto an already burdened landscape shaped by decades of dams and diversions. This map traces that dense web of over-engineered hydropower infrastructure across an evergreen terrain in the fragile heart of the central Western Ghats.
India’s environmental governance framework evaluates each project in isolation, without accounting for concurrent developments, historical ecological degradation, or the cumulative impact of multiple interventions across ecologically fragile regions like the Western Ghats.The legal framework operates as if each new project—such as a pumped storage facility—is being proposed on a tabula rasa, a pristine and untouched landscape.
In reality, these projects are often superimposed on already overburdened ecosystems, shaped by decades of infrastructure development, with profound ecological and social consequences. The Sharavathi basin—once home to dense evergreen forests, abundant wildlife, and a roaring river—has been ravaged and silenced by successive waves of dams, tunnels, powerhouses, and transmission lines.
This map traces the dense web of over-enginnered hydropower infrastructure across the Sharavathi and Varahi river basins.
Sharavathi River Basin Hydropower
The Sharavathi River Basin has a cumulative hydropower capacity of 1,491.2 MW. The Linganamakki Dam regulates water supply to all hydropower projects in the basin:
- Mahatma Gandhi (139.2 MW)
- Linganamakki Powerhouse (55 MW)
- Sharavathi (1,035 MW)
- Gerusoppa (240 MW)
- Ambuthirtha (22 MW)
To sustain power generation, water is also diverted from the Chakra and Savehaklu reservoirs—located in the Chakra River Basin—to the Linganamakki Reservoir. This means the Sharavathi hydropower system relies not only on water from its own basin but also on inter-basin transfers from neighboring Chakra basin.
Table 1 provides technical details—height, gross storage, live storage, and year of commissioning—for all dams that are part of the Sharavathi River Basin hydropower projects.
The Linganamakki Dam alone submerged approximately 326.34 km² (~80,640 acres) of dense tropical evergreen and semi-evergreen forests, displacing around 12,000 people. In total, dam projects across the Sharavathi Valley have destroyed nearly 404.7 km² (~1,00,003 acres) of forest—equivalent to 57% of Bengaluru’s BBMP area—representing a massive and irreversible loss of biodiversity.
Both the Sharavathi River flow and its estuary are now regulated by hydropower dam releases. During our visit to the Mahatma Gandhi powerhouse, we observed a dry riverbed downstream (as shown in the image below), as the river water is diverted through tunnels to the Ambutheertha powerhouse. These controlled releases cause the estuary to experience unnatural salinity fluctuations multiple times a day. Such artificial changes have destabilized the estuarine ecosystem, leading to a sharp decline in biodiversity. Today, the Sharavathi estuary supports only 43 fish species, compared to 90 species in the free-flowing Aghanashini estuary, where natural salinity patterns remain undisturbed.
Now, the proposed 2000 MW Sharavathi Pumped Storage Project, with new tunnels and underground powerhouses, is being planned on top of this already existing and ecologically burdened hydropower infrastructure.
Varahi River Basin Hydropower
The Varahi River Basin has a cumulative hydropower capacity of 269 MW. The river has been so extensively dammed, diverted, and tunneled through the mountains that it is now nearly impossible to locate the river itself or trace the direction of water flow through the complex network of infrastructure. The largest dam in the basin is Mani, which—like Linganamakki in the Sharavathi basin— regulates water supply to other key hydropower structures, including the Pickup Reservoir and Hulical Forebay.
The Mani Dam generates 9 MW of electricity on its own, but more critically, it enables an additional 260 MW of power generation through the Varahi Underground Power Houses by feeding the Pickup and Hulical dams. Additionally, water from the Savehaklu Reservoir of the Chakra River Basin is diverted to the Hulical Forebay via the Kyragunda Saddle Dam for power production, when needed. This intricate web of diversions and control structures underscores the highly engineered and interlinked nature of the basin.
Table 2 provides details on the height, gross storage, live storage, and year of commissioning for all dams in the Varahi hydropower system.
Now, the proposed 1500 MW Varahi Pumped Storage Project, which includes the construction of a new dam, is being planned atop the existing dam and hydropower infrastructure, further intensifying the ecological pressure on this already altered landscape.
Chakra River – A Vital Backbone
The Chakra River, a relatively small west-flowing river stretching about 56 kilometers, plays a crucial role in supporting hydropower generation in both the Sharavathi and Varahi basins, as illustrated in the map. It has two major dams—Chakra and Savehaklu—whose specifications are provided in Table 1. Water from these reservoirs is regularly diverted to feed the Linganamakki Reservoir (Sharavathi system) and the Hulical Forebay Reservoir (Varahi system), making the Chakra River a vital backbone of the interlinked hydropower infrastructure in the region.
In conclusion, this mapping analysis highlights a critical flaw in India’s environmental governance framework by showing how decades of hydropower development have woven an interconnected web of ecological destruction across the Western Ghats river basins. Once-pristine ecosystems have been transformed into over-engineered landscapes, to the point where even tracing the original course of rivers has become nearly impossible. This reveals how institutional blindness to cumulative impacts enables continued ecological degradation under the guise of sustainable development, green/renewable energy.
References
- This summary draws on extensive discussions with grassroots activists in Shivamogga, including marine ecologist Prakash Mesta from Honnavar.
- Field visits to all hydroelectric stations in the Sharavathi Valley (except Gerusoppa), located within the sanctuary.
- Sharma, Gajanana (2003). Belakayithu Karnataka [Kannada].
- Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd. Performance Review of KPCL Power Stations, 2020-21.
- Indian Institute of Science (IISc). Ecological Profile of the Sharavathi Basin, November 2012.
- Fish Distribution in Relation to Salinity in the Aghanashini Estuary, Kumta, Karnataka, January 2012.
