Environmental impacts of canal irrigation in India

Abstract

In today's scenario a major threat to human life is the environmental degradation and we ourselves are responsible for such degradation. Human effort since ancient times to increase agricultural production was wonderful. Various techniques of Irrigation for example tube wells, canal irrigation etc. have been introduced. It was considered a boon for the development of society, but due to human efforts to increase the agricultural production at any cost has become a curse for the society. Man always tries to over use the natural resources but in this process they forget that this over utilisation will adversely affect the society in many ways. It can even lead to serious environmental impacts on flora, fauna, human population etc.This paper deals with one such human effort to increase the agricultural production and it is the Canal Irrigation system. The construction of canals is in general beneficial for increasing the agricultural production but they are also responsible, if not properly handled, for some environmental hazards. On one hand financial input is sometimes more than the expected return and on another, if not properly handled and implemented, it causes ecological imbalances resulting in waterlogging, salinization, loss of forest area (due to extensive deforestation), grazing land, crop land etc, which leads to the displacement of human inhabitants and wildlife. Thus, overall this paper focuses on canal irrigation system of the state of Uttar Pradesh state in India.