INTEGRATED RIVERFRONT DEVELOPMENT AND CONSERVATION OF KALIYASOT RIVER, BHOPAL

Abstract

Urban rivers in rapidly urbanising Indian cities are subjected to severe and compounding ecological stress as a result of unregulated sewage discharge, illegal encroachment upon ecologically sensitive buffer zones, systematic loss of natural riparian vegetation, and the near-total elimination of river flow during non monsoon months. These combined pressures have, in secondary cities across India, effectively converted functioning river ecosystems into open sewage drains — waterways that generate public health hazards, ecological collapse, and social inequity rather than the environmental services, recreational amenity, and economic productivity that rivers historically provided to urban communities. The Kaliyasot River in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, represents a critical and analytically significant case of this phenomenon. Originating from the spillway of Bhopal's Upper Lake — one of the oldest artificial water bodies in India — the river traverses a 29-kilometre corridor through the dense urban core of Bhopal, the peri urban transitional zone of Misrod, and the industrial landscape of Mandideep before joining the Betwa River near Bhojpur. Its catchment area of 18.16 square kilometres is now dominated by impervious urban surfaces, and the river remains dry for approximately eight to nine months each year, functioning as a carrier of municipal sewage and industrial effluent rather than as an ecological asset. This thesis presents a comprehensive integrated study of the full Kaliyasot River corridor using a multi-source data framework encompassing: remote sensing analysis of Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2 satellite imagery for the period 2015 to 2025; Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis of land use change, buffer zone violations, and hydrological decline; water quality analysis at five monitoring stations based on the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board report (MPPCB, 2019); field surveys and photographic documentation of the 29-kilometre corridor; and structured household interviews with 120 respondents across Zones 1 and 2 of the corridor. The analysis reveals conditions of severe ecological degradation across the full corridor. The Water Quality Index (WQI) ranges from 82 at the upstream Damkheda station — classified as 'Very Poor' — to values exceeding 225 at the industrial outfall, classified as 'Ecological Collapse' under the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) methodology. Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) values exceed the CPCB Class B permissible limit of 3 mg/L by factors ranging from six at the upstream station to 56 at the industrial outfall. Dissolved Oxygen levels at the Sarvdharm monitoring location have been recorded at zero milligrams per litre, confirming a biologically dead zone in which no aerobic aquatic life can survive. Faecal Coliform counts at Station S5 reach 31,000 MPN per 100 mL — 62 times the permissible limit for any form of safe human contact with the water. Land use analysis demonstrates a 23 percentage point increase in built-up area within the catchment — from 38 percent in 2015 to 61 percent in 2025 — alongside a 34 percent decline in surface water presence as measured by the Normalised Difference Water Index (NDWI). The National Green Tribunal's mandatory 33-metre ecological buffer has been violated at rates ranging from 18 to 78 percent at different locations, with 321 structures identified within the protected zone. On the socio-economic dimension, a survey of 120 households reveals that communities most dependent on the river — concentrated in the Zone 1 upstream section where 38 percent of residents live in informal settlements — are demonstrably not the primary sources of pollution. A Pearson correlation coefficient of r = +0.12 between informal settlement density and pollution load effectively disproves the commonly applied assumption that riverside slums are the primary drivers of river degradation. The five major nallah outfalls and the overloaded Misrod STP are identified as the dominant pollution sources. The social analysis further reveals that 78 percent of female respondents feel unsafe at the riverfront, establishing a critical gender safety deficit that must be addressed in any development proposal. In response to these findings, the thesis proposes an integrated intervention framework comprising four complementary proposals, evaluated against the I SEER (Integrated Social, Economic and Environmental Restoration) framework (Journal of Cleaner Production, 2025): (i) Environmental Flow restoration through a decentralised network of Sewage Treatment Plants totalling 170 Million Litres per Day capacity, using Sequential Batch Reactor and Eco-STP technologies; (ii) a check dam network of 8 to 10 sub-metre structures for flow retention and groundwater recharge, designed in accordance with IS 14451 and the Dam Safety Act 2021; (iii) constructed wetland cells of 3 to 4 hectares at the Zone 3 terminus, functioning as a final ecological filter before the Betwa River confluence; and (iv) a four-zone eco-sensitive riverfront development model sequencing ecological restoration ahead of public infrastructure, incorporating 30 percent livelihood space, CPTED safety design, and bioengineered bank treatments in place of concrete embankments. The implementation is structured across four phases spanning a ten-year horizon (2025–2035), ensuring that pollution control precedes ecological restoration, which in turn precedes public realm development. Each phase is linked to measurable performance thresholds — defined by WQI improvement, dissolved oxygen recovery, and riparian cover increase — ensuring that phase transitions are evidence-based rather than time-driven. A governance recommendation for the establishment of a unified Kaliyasot River Corridor Authority is proposed as a pre condition for implementation. The thesis demonstrates that ecology-first, equity-centred riverfront planning is both technically feasible and institutionally achievable for secondary urban rivers in semi-arid central Indian contexts. Its findings contribute to the growing literature on non-perennial urban river restoration and provide a replicable framework applicable to comparable river corridors across Madhya Pradesh and beyond.