Ken-Betwa protest: Why are tribals opposing the river-linking project | Explained
Madhya Pradesh police forcibly ended a two-week protest by tribal villagers against the Ken-Betwa Link Project, a major river-linking initiative. Demonstrators are demanding better rehabilitation and compensation for displacement caused by the dam project.
Why it matters
The conflict highlights the ongoing tension between large-scale national infrastructure development and the rights and livelihoods of indigenous communities.
The story so far: Less than 24 hours after the Delhi Police’s forcible removal of activist Sonam Wangchuk from his protest site at Jantar Mantar on the 21st day of his indefinite hunger strike , the Madhya Pradesh Police ended another protest about 650 km from the national capital. Early morning of Sunday (July 19, 2026), M.P. Police personnel arrived on the banks of Barana river stream in Kupi village of Chhatarpur district and cleared a protest site where hundreds of villages, mostly tribals, had been demonstrating for two weeks against the Union Government’s ₹44,000 crore Ken-Betwa Link Project (KBLP), India’s first river linking project, and two irrigation projects of the Madhya Pradesh Government.
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