Godavari Valley Area and Covid-19

• 18 Apr 2020

Why in News

Recently, a petition has been filed in the Supreme Court for directing the Andhra Pradesh government to conduct Covid-19 tests among the tribal population living along the Godavari river valley area.

Key Points

• The petition said the Godavari river valley area, where the tribal people live is close to the Polavaram irrigation project area.
  
  • The Godavari river valley area spreads across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and Chhattisgarh.
• The Covid-19 lockdown has been blatantly violated for the construction of the Polavaram irrigation project on Godavari river in Andhra Pradesh.
• A large number of migrant workers are still working on the project site without sanitisers and masks. These workers lived in close proximity to the tribal population.
• Lack of awareness among the tribal people, who live in dense forest and other scheduled areas of the river valley, made them more prone to Covid-19 infections.
• Konda reddis, Koyas and Kolam are the popular tribes living in godavari valley.
  
  • Konda reddis and Kolam are part of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG).

Polavaram Irrigation Project

• Polavaram Project is located in Andhra Pradesh on the river Godavari, near Polavaram village.
• It is a multi-purpose irrigation project as the project once completed will provide Irrigation benefits and will generate HydroElectric Power. In addition, this project will also supply drinking water.
• It will facilitate an inter-basin transfer to the Krishna river basin through its Right canal.
• It will also provide indirect benefits such as development of Pisciculture (breeding and rearing of fish), tourism and urbanisation.
• The Project has been accorded national project status by the union government in 2014 (under Section-90 of Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2014).

Godavari River

• Source: Godavari river rises from Trimbakeshwar near Nasik in Maharashtra and flows for a length of about 1465 km before outfalling into the Bay of Bengal.
• Drainage Basin: The Godavari basin extends over states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha in addition to smaller parts in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Union territory of Puducherry.
• Tributaries: Pravara, Purna, Manjra, Penganga, Wardha, Wainganga, Pranhita (combined flow of Wainganga, Penganga, Wardha), Indravati, Maner and the Sabri.

Source: TH