Rise & fall of River Shimsha

Great rivers

Shimsha, the main tributary of Cauvery, has survived decades of human interference and drought to consistently nourish life around it, writes S V Upendra Charya.

It is said that rivers have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Unfortunately, human interference has led to the drying up of many rivers in the middle of their journey. However, one exception is Shimsha, the main tributary of Cauvery, which is still fortunately flowing — albeit at isolated patchy spots along its long journey — after three years of severe drought in the catchment areas of the river.

River Shimsha is also called Madduru Hole as the river passes through Maddur town and many villages of Maddur taluk. It waters vast areas of cultivation lands in and around Maddur. The river flows close to Maddur’s ancient Vaidyanatheshwara and Hole Anjaneya temples.

Three kilometres from the town at Vaidyanathapura is a historic footbridge built across Shimsha. The Gazetteer of Mysore, compiled by B L Rice, also mentions this bridge. It says, “A fine brick bridge of seven arches, constructed in 1850, spans the Shimsha, and has now been used for the railway as well as the road”. The century-old bridge, however, had to be reconstructed and a portion of the rebuilt bridge also collapsed four years ago.

Now, there is a temporary structure connecting the collapsed portion of the bridge which is being used routinely by residents of about 20 villages to cross the river for the past three years. Recently, the State government is said to have sanctioned Rs 17 crore to construct a new bridge, demolishing the present makeshift iron bridge structure.

Majestic fall

Rising at an altitude of about 900 metres to the south of Devarayanadurga Hill near Tumkur, the river makes more than a 200-km-long journey during the rainy season. Spread over 8,000 sq km of its catchment area, Shimsha, apart from its small streams, has several tributaries like Chikkahole, Kannihalla, Veeravaishnavi, Hebbahalla and Mallahalla.

In the last phase of its long and devious journey, Shimsha flows towards a region bordering Chamarajanagar where it joins River Cauvery.

To supplement the power generated from bluff (Shivanasamudra), the Shimsha Hydro Electric Project was commissioned at Shimshapura, 30 kms from Mandya, in 1940. Shimshapura is located three kilometres from the island town of Shivanasamudra, famed for its Gaganachukki and Bharachukki waterfalls. Known to be the world’s earliest executed hydropower project, the Shivanasamudra Hydro Electric Project’s power generating unit is situated downstream of the twin waterfalls of Shivanasamudra. Shivanasamudra is named Madhya Ranga after the Ranganatha Temple located in this town where River Cauvery splits into two streams, forming the ever-enchanting waterfalls Gaganachukki and Bharachukki. 

About 20 km from Kunigal town and two kilometre from the famous Yediyur Siddhalingeshwara Temple is Markonahalli where a multipurpose dam was built to impound the Shimsha waters. It is said to have been built basically as a contingency plan to save villages located downstream from floods, and also to ensure the safety of the sacred Yediyur Siddhalingeshwara Temple situated close-by.

The Markonahalli reservoir is built to irrigate 6,000 hectares. And, to farmers of about 4,000 villages in Kunigal taluk, it has remained the main source of irrigation for the past 50 years. The river basin of Shimsha is known to have been critically affected by the relentless sand mining done in and around the river banks, particularly in the Mandya and Maddur river spots. Shimsha has been the lifeline for thousands of farmers belonging to Nagamangala, Maddur and Malavalli taluks, and for hundreds of riparian villages in Tumkur, Mandya and Chamarajanagar taluks, as it is the main irrigation source.

Environmentalists fear that years of dry spell, shrinking catchment basins and reckless sand extraction from the river beds have made the survival of River Shimsha tragically precarious.