Karnataka’s Mekedatu Push: Revenue Officials Scramble to Locate 12,600 Acres for Afforestation

The state government has fast-tracked the contentious Mekedatu balancing reservoir project, tasking district administrations with finding massive land parcels to offset the environmental toll.

The machinery behind the Mekedatu balancing reservoir project is shifting gears. Barely two weeks after D.K. Shivakumar took charge, the government has intensified efforts to clear the regulatory hurdles that have long stalled this ambitious infrastructure plan. At the heart of the latest push is a directive issued to Karnataka DCs to identify a staggering 12,600 acres of land to serve as compensatory afforestation for the forest area set to be submerged.

The scale of the project is massive. The proposed dam at Sangama is designed to store 67.16 tmc of water, aiming to bolster Bengaluru’s drinking water security and generate 400 MW of power. However, the environmental cost is equally significant, as approximately 12,546 acres within the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary will disappear under the backwaters. Under the Forest (Conservation) Act, the state is legally obligated to provide an equivalent tract of land for reforestation, a requirement that has now turned into a logistical headache for the revenue department.

The Land Hunt

In a letter dated June 11, the additional chief secretary to the revenue department instructed deputy commissioners across the state to scout for non-forest land—ideally classified as C&D class—to fulfill this mandate. The directive follows an urgent communication from Gaurav Gupta, the additional chief secretary to the water resources department, who noted that such a large contiguous extent of land simply does not exist in the districts surrounding the Cauvery river basin.

The government maintains that the project will not violate downstream commitments. Despite the political friction, officials insist that the allocated water flow to Tamil Nadu, fixed at 177.25 TMC, remains protected. Even so, the search for 12,600 acres is proving to be a complex exercise in land management, with authorities being pushed to look beyond traditional boundaries to satisfy statutory forest norms.

Why it matters

This scramble for land signifies that the Mekedatu project is moving from political rhetoric to an active, albeit challenging, implementation phase. For the state government, the project is a prestige issue linked closely to the capital’s long-term water stability. However, the transition from planning to execution highlights the inherent friction between urban infrastructure demands and ecological preservation. By mandating that revenue officials look for land outside the Cauvery basin, the government is signalling that it is prepared to navigate significant administrative hurdles to keep its promise to Bengaluru. The coming months will reveal whether the state can acquire these vast tracts without sparking further land-use conflicts or delays.