Dandavathi River

Dandavathi is a famous river that flows across Sorab situated in India. It basically starts from a reservoir which is situated in Kattinakere. This reservoir's spill over canal gathers strength along its way in order to become the river called as Dandavathi. Dandavathi River flows via Kuppe area and it joins the Varada River near Sagara district. The river Varada in turn joins the Tungabhadra River which then later joins the Krishna River and then all of which finally joins the Bay of Bengal which is situated in the East coast of India. Sri Ranganatha temple is built along the banks of the River of Dandavathi.

The Old legend goes that when the famous Sri Ramachandra, Lakamana and Seetha were in exile, they passed through Sorab district. It is believed that Seetha felt a little thirsty and Sri Ramachandra dug out a hole from the ground to find water. The water which was found by the Lord Rama has turned in to the Dandavathi River of today.

Soraba gets its name from its much earlier name of Surabhipura which means it is the Town of Surabhi. It was considered as the area where the sacred cow used to give milk on a famous stone statue of the lord Sri Ranganatha. In the same place a very famous temple is built and it is now known as the Soraba's well-known Sri Ranganatha temple. The legend goes that this temple was built by a local Gowda who were land lords from Halesoraba on the cove of the river Dandavathi. The manuscripts that have been engraved in the temple in the Kanada script confirm the legend. It is written in the stone tower which is near the bay of the famous river Dandavathi. This is just a small distance which could be reached by walking only.

There has been always a plan to build up a reservoir across the river Dandavathi close to the Cheelanoor village of Sorab district. The Project irrigates about 50,500 acres of both forest and Agricultural land. The Farmers who feared the problems arising from the project had staged several protests. They believe that the implementation of this project is not at all viable and it is done only for political gains. This major controversy was used by the politicians throughout the Parliament and as well as the local bodies election. The Sources in the Water Resource Department said that the water level in the Dandavathi River that comes under the allocation of Krishna valley needs to be utilized in accordance to the directions of Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal. This lead to legal hurdles in the process of implementing the Dandavathi project.

The Dandavathi Virodhi Samiti has started a resistance against the project saying that the project is being executed for only political reasons. The movement questions the basic grounds behind irrigating dry lands by destroying the rain forest and rich agricultural land. The Dandavathi River carries a maximum of 5.5 TMC feet of water according to the facts in the year 1986-87 and in a good monsoon has an average of 4 TMC feet. The Construction of a dam across this Dandavathi River was initially proposed by the British in the year 1895. This was done as a measure to control floods and for better utilization of the water obtained. Since then, the proposal has been cropped up time and again in various years ranging over decades and generations right from 1927 to 2010.

Course

Dandavathi is a very small river of only a 55 km length that runs between the place of origin in Kuppi and the place called Bankasana where it eventually joins the river Varada which is a tributary of Krishna. The river Varada in turn joins the Tungabhadra River then later it joins the Krishna River and then all of which finally joins the Bay of Bengal which is situated in the East coast of India.

Tributaries

The river is originated from the Kattinakere reservoir. It gathers momentum and forms into the river. This river then joins into the Varada River which is one of the primary tributary of the river Krishna. It’s an east ward flowing river and it finally meets up in the east coast of India.

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