CONCLUSION

Yettinaholé River is currently catering to the anthropogenic and ecological water needs in the catchment. Higher discharge of water during monsoon has helped in the transport of nutrients, silt, etc., which has helped in sustaining the riparian’s vegetation and aquatic life apart from meeting the anthropogenic demand  (for horticulture, agriculture etc.). Many streams of Yettinaholé are perennial, which has helped in sustaining the rich and diverse  aquatic life apart from sustaining horticultural, agricultural activities (3 crops per year) and fishery.
Hydrological yield computation shows the water yield in the catchment is about 9.5 TMC, About 5.84 TMC is required for domestic purposes including agriculture, horticulture and livestock rearing and the quantum of water required to sustain fish life in the streams is about 2 TMC. This highlights that water available in the catchment is sufficient to sustain the current ecological and anthropogenic (agricultural, horticultural) demand. Alterations in the catchment integrity (land cover) or water diversions, would result in the variation in the natural flow regime affecting the biodiversity of riparian’s and aquatic habitats and more importantly people’s livelihood who are dependent on fisheries, etc. in the downstream. In this contyext, The federal government’s  plan to divert Yettinaholé River water to the dry arid regions in Karnataka is neither technically feasible, economically viable nor ecologically sound apart from depriving the anthropogenic demand in the Yettinaholé River catchment. The sustainable option to meet the water requirements in arid regions  is through (i) decentralized water harvesting (through tanks, ponds, lakes, etc.), (ii) rejuvenation or restoration of existing lakes/ponds, (iii) reuse of treated waste water, (iv) recharging groundwater resources, (v) planting native species of plants in the catchment, (vi) implementation of soil and water conservation through micro-watershed approaches.