Department of Earth Sciences, University of Roorkee says in a paper published in an international journal that reservoir created due to dam construction induces groundwater recharge and leads to better supply of water to vegetation which directly enhances the growth of vegetation in the downstream areas.
A senior THDCIl official cited the instance of Tehri Dam to buttress the finding of the department. He claimed that with the construction of Tehri Dam, availability of water has increased substantially in the river course during lean from November to June. “In the case of Tehri, average water flow of 100 cumecs in the river course before impoundment of its reservoir has got increased to average 200 cumecs after impoundment of Tehri reservoir,” the officer claimed.The same paper further mentions that the Tehri Dam, the fifth largest dam in the world which became operational in 2005, provides 270 million gallons of drinking water per day aside from irrigating thousands of acres of farmland. Besides, it is all set to generate 2,400 megawatts of electricity for Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, the paper adds.