Ganga canal

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The Ganga Canal is a canal system that irrigates the Doab region between the Ganges River and the Jamuna River in India.

The canal is primarily an irrigation canal, although parts of it were also used for navigation, with the occasional porterage at weirs. Originally constructed in 1840, it has since been greatly enlarged.

With a capacity of 10,500 cusecs (295 cu.m./sec), and a main canal of 300 km. with 6240 kms of distribution channels, the canal system irrigates nearly 9 lakh hectares of fertile agricultural in ten districts of Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal. Today the canal is the source of agricultural prosperity in much of these states, and the irrigation departments of these states actively maintain the canal against a fee system charged from users^[1].

1 Structure
- 1.1 Upper Ganga Canal
- 1.2 Lower Ganga Canal
2 History
3 References

[edit] Structure

The canal is administritatively divided into the Upper Ganga canal from Haridwar to Aligarh, with some branches, and the Lower Ganga canal which constitutes several branches below Aligarh.

[edit] Upper Ganga Canal

The Upper Ganga canal is the original Ganges Canal, which starts at the head works near Har-ki-Pauri at Haridwar, Saharanpur district, traverses Meerut and Bulandshahr and continues to Nanu in Aligarh district, where it bifurcates into the Kanpur and Etawah branches.

[edit] Lower Ganga Canal

A channel from a weir at Narora intersects the canal system 48 km downstream from Nanu, and continues past the Sengar and Sersa rivers, past Shikohabad in Mainpuri district to become the Bhognipur branch which was opened in 1880. This branch, starting at village Jera in Mainpuri district, runs for 166 km to reach Kanpur. At kilometre 64 the Balrai escape carries excess water through a 6.4 km. channel through the ravines to discharge into the Yamuna. This branch has 386 km. of distributary channels.

The Bhognipur branch, together with the Kanpur and Etawah branches, is known as the Lower Ganga canal. The old channels of the old Kanpur and Etawah branches between Nanu and the point of intersection by the channel from Narora, are known as "stumps", and are utilized only when the supply of water in the lower Ganges system runs low^[2].

At some point the Kanpur branch seems to have continued to Allahabad - but presently the canal appears to be petering out at Kanpur^[3]. There is also a separate West Allahabad branch.

[edit] History

An irrigation system was felt necessary after a disastrous famine in 1837-38 in which nearly one crore rupees was spent on relief works, resulgint in considerable loss of revenue to the British East India Company.

One of the moving forces behind the canal was Colonel Proby Cautley, who was confident that a 500-kilometre canal was feasible. There were many obstacles and objections to his project, mostly financial, but Cautley persevered and after spending six months walking and riding through the area taking measurements, he managed to persuade the British East India Company to sponsor the project.

Digging of the canal began in 1840. Cautley had to make his own bricks, brick kiln and mortar. Initially, he was opposed by the Hindu priests at Haridwar, who felt that the waters of the holy river Ganga would be imprisoned but Cautley pacified them by agreeing to leave a gap in the dam from where the water could flow unchecked. He further appeased the priests by undertaking the repair of bathing ghats along the river. He also inaugurated the dam by the worship of Lord Ganesh, the god of good beginnings.

The dam was faced with many complications- among them was the problem of the mountainous streams that threatened the canal. Near Roorkee, the land fell away sharply and Cautley had to build an aqueduct to carry the canal for half a kilometre. As a result, at Roorkee the canal is 25 metres higher than the original river.

When the canal formally opened on 8 April 1854, its main channel was 348 miles long, its branches 306 miles long and the various tributaries over 3000 miles long. Over 767,000 acres in 5,000 villages were irrigated.

In 1877 the whole canal system of the lower Doabs underwent radical alteration. The Lower Ganga canal, with a feed from a channel coming from Narora, was constructed into the ghar tract of Etawah, and became the Bhognipur branch.

Around 1900, according to the Nuttall Encyclopedia of 1907, it had a total extent of 3700 miles, of which 500 miles were navigable.

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia.