About the Damodar
The Damodar was once called the "River of Sorrows" for its devastating floods across the Bengal coalfields — before the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) constructed a series of dams and barrages in the 1940s–60s in India's first major multi-purpose river development project, inspired by the Tennessee Valley Authority in the USA. The river drains the Chota Nagpur Plateau — India's most important mineral region — passing through the Jharkhand coalfields before entering Bengal.
The upper Damodar catchment in Jharkhand flows through some of the most important tribal forest landscapes in India, including the margins of the Saranda forest — the largest sal forest in Asia. The river and its tributaries support smooth-coated otters and golden mahseer in their cleaner upper reaches, while the middle sections suffer from industrial pollution from coal washing and steel manufacturing. The Damodar's rehabilitation from industrial river to recovering ecosystem is one of India's ongoing conservation projects.
Barakar · Konar · Bokaro · Jamunia