On Which River is the Tehri Dam Built?

The Tehri Dam is built across the Bhagirathi River.

• Location: It is situated in the Tehri Garhwal district of the northern Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.
• The Bhagirathi River is the primary headstream of the sacred Ganga river.

The Tehri Dam is famous because it is the highest dam in India, and one of the tallest dams in the entire world.

• It is an earth and rock-fill dam reaching an immense height of 260.5 meters (855 feet).

• Purpose: It was built primarily to generate massive amounts of hydroelectricity (1000 MW capacity), provide irrigation to Uttar Pradesh, and supply clean drinking water to New Delhi.
• Controversy: The construction of the dam faced massive protests (notably by environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna). The primary concern was that building such a massive water reservoir in the highly earthquake-prone Himalayas could trigger a catastrophic disaster. Additionally, the historic town of Old Tehri was completely submerged under water to build it.