Sukapaika River

About:

• This is probably the first serious attempt being made to restore a river to its original shape in Odisha. 
• The problem has started in 1952, when the state government blocked the starting point of the Sukapaika with an embankment to save the villages around it from floods.
• Subsequently, in 1957, two major projects — Hirakud Dam in Sambalpur district and Naraj barrage at Cuttack — were built upstream on the Mahanadi, ostensibly to control floods in it.
• The river dried up due to the development of the Taladanda Canal System, a major canal of the State.

Sukapaika River:

• Sukapaika is one of the several distributaries of the mighty Mahanadi river in Odisha.
• It branches away from the Mahanadi at Ayatpur village in Cuttack district and flows for about 40 kilometres (km) before rejoining its parent river at Tarapur in the same district.
• In the process, it drains a large landmass comprising over 425 villages under 26 gram panchayats in three blocks — Cuttack Sadar, Nischintakoili and Raghunathpur.

Source : The Hindu