Challenges in flood and drought management (at same time) in Kukadi basin (Upper Krishna) in Maharashtra

Kukadi Irrigation Project lies in K5 sub basin of Krishna in Maharashtra. The project envisages cluster of 5 major dams (named Dimbhe, Manikdoh, Wadaj, Pimpalgaon Joge and Yedgaon) having irrigation potential of 146053 ha with annual 1101 Mcum water utilization. Live water storage capacity of all the dams is 864.48 Mcum. The average annual rain fall in catchment varies from 900 mm to 3600 mm and in command varies from 400 mm to 600 mm.The command area lies in drought prone area of Pune, Ahmednagar and Solapur districts of Maharashtra. The Yedgaon dam is like pick up weir having its own yield and storage. It also receives water from Dimbhe dam (though DLBC), Wadaj dam (through MLBC), Manikdoh dam (through river) and through Pimpalgaon Joge dam (through river) and Chilhewadi dam. The project has main canals having total length of 582 km. Its major canal is KLBC, (Kukadi left bank canal). The KLBC starts from Yedgaon dam and runs for 249 km, in Pune (25 km), Ahmednagar (185.km) and Solapur (39 km) districts and the KLBC runs on-water of Yedgaon dam.Every year, the project manager has to face the flood and drought situation-at the same time. In July-August 2019 there was extreme situation, when catchment area received-more than 200 % of precipitation and in command the precipitation was even less than 25 % of an-nual average. The river was flooded with water and the banks within 5 kms were having extreme-scarcity of water in mid monsoon. The upper reaches and river bank project engineers were busy in-flood mitigation and command area was waiting for tankers of drinking water. The paper envisages-the challenges in K5 sub basin of Bhima (Upper Krishna) to handle extreme event of drought and-flood situation at the same time. In present study, simultaneous flood and drought management in Kukadi sub basin is discussed.