Inland Fisheries

3.5.1 Introduction

          In the 19th century, Sir Arthur Cotton had thought of a plan to link rivers in southern India for inland navigation. Though partially implemented, the idea was later abandoned because inland navigation lost ground to the railways. In more recent times, the 'Ganga - Cauvery Link' proposal mooted by former Irrigation Minister , Dr. K.L. Rao was examined and found impracticable because of the very large financial and energy costs involved, and the 'Garland Canal' idea put forward by airline pilot Captain D. Dastur, was termed as technically unsound .

The recent revival of the idea of interlinking of 'surplus' basins with 'deficit' basins has been the result of work done by the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) and bears a conceptual continuity with Dr. Rao's proposal.