Narmada River
Narmada (or Narbada, sometimes Nerbudda) River, 1,290 kilometers long, was mentioned by Ptolemy as the Namados. Ancient Sanskrit names for the river included Reva, Samodbhava, and Mekalasuta. Traditionally, the Narmada River formed the boundary between the Dekkan Plateau and what was known as Hindustan, the North Indian plains. It rises in western India in the Maikala Range, on Amarkantak Hill, very close to the source of the Mahanadi, and is the only major Indian river to flow westward into the Arabian Sea, meeting it at Broach (or Bharuch) after crossing all of Madhya Pradesh state and flowing in a straight course between the Satpura and Vindhya Ranges to the Gulf of Khambhai, in eastern Gujarat State.
Navigation is confined to the lower 100 kilometers, and the river has not been used for irrigation purposes. In 1978 a controversial project was launched in the face of massive opposition, to dam the river just inside Gujarat State, by drowning hundreds of villages in the state of Madhya Pradesh and displacing several million people, thereby creating a new source of power for Gujarat's industries and of irrigation for area farmers. Amid much criticism of the project, the government of India halted the dam construction in 1995. A ruling in 2000 by the Supreme Court of India allowed the project to move forward; however, the public debate over building the dam remains heated.
Further Reference
Alvares, Claude, and Ramesh Billory. (1988) Damming the Narmada: India's Greatest Planned Environmental Disaster. Penang, India: Third World Network/APPEN.
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