Palar-Pinakini River Ecology and Tank Irrigation of Chikkaballapur

Chikkaballapur district lies at the headwaters of the Palar (Pinakini) river system, one of Karnataka's major eastward-flowing rivers that drains into the Bay of Bengal. Traditional communities built an extensive network of check dams and tanks across the district's undulating red laterite terrain to harvest the highly variable monsoon runoff. The Nandi Hills are the source of both the Palar and the Arkavathi — two rivers that sustain much of the Bengaluru plateau's water needs. Community tank management in Chikkaballapur's villages was historically a collective enterprise with elaborate rules governing water rights for upstream and downstream farmers. Groundwater depletion from borewell overdraft has now critically stressed the district's water balance.