Lift irrigation schemes of Telangana

Known forThe first big Godavari lift, and the model for Kaleshwaram.

The J. Chokka Rao scheme, and the one that proved the idea Kaleshwaram was later built on: take Godavari water at a point on the river’s eastern bend and pump it inland and uphill to the Warangal country, which has good soil, no river of its own and had been rain-fed for a thousand years. It was the second largest lift of its kind in Asia when it was built.

SettingGodavari eastern bend · Forested intake · Warangal plateau command

For the examFormally the J. Chokka Rao Godavari Lift Irrigation Scheme. Its command is the old Warangal district; its intake is in Mulugu.

Known forThe Krishna lifted onto the driest ground in the state.

Lifts the Krishna out of the Jurala backwater onto the dry uplands of Gadwal and Wanaparthy — the country the Palamoor migration came from. It is a small scheme by the standards of this layer and it matters out of proportion, because the land it waters is the land whose failure to hold people is the single best-known social fact about south Telangana.

SettingKrishna backwater · Southern dry plateau · Black cotton soils

Known forThe steepest Krishna lift, out of the Srisailam gorge.

Takes the Krishna from the Srisailam backwater and raises it several hundred metres onto the plateau behind the Nallamala, to water Nagarkurnool, Mahabubnagar and Nalgonda. The lift here is the steepest in the state, because the Krishna at Srisailam is in a gorge and the land it serves is on top of the escarpment above it.

SettingKrishna gorge · Nallamala escarpment · Southern plateau command

For the examIts source is the Srisailam reservoir, whose dam is in Andhra Pradesh — which is why the scheme is argued about at the Krishna River Management Board rather than only in Telangana.

Known forThe Godavari lift for the south-east, at the Dummugudem anicut.

Takes water from the Godavari at the Dummugudem anicut — the oldest head works on the river in the state — and lifts it west into Khammam and Bhadradri Kothagudem. It is the southern end of the same argument Kaleshwaram makes at the northern end: the Godavari runs along the edge of the country that needs it, so the river has to be brought inland rather than followed.

SettingLower Godavari · Dummugudem anicut · Agency tract command