Hathnikund Barrage in Haryana

Hathnikund Barrage is at the foothills of the Himalayas in the Yamunanagar district of Haryana. It is about 40 km from the Yamunanagar town on the road to Paonta Saheb, a famous Sikh shrine 23 km ahead and Dehradun.

Scenic Hathnikund Barrage with the Hiamalaya foothills in the background 

The road is very good except the last part where you have to leave the National Highway and take the Major District Road (MDR). In fact it is hardly a road and it is not even a levelled kutcha (non-metalled) road.

Poor road conditions leading to & fro from Hathnikund

The Barrage works as a boundary between Haryana and Uttar Pradesh (UP). The MDR on the Haryana side is just 500 meters or so but if someone wants to come from the Uttar Pradesh after leaving the Yamunotri Highway then one has to cover about 12 kms of rough roads.

The Hathnikund Barrage

Neither Haryana nor Uttar Pradesh have made any efforts to develop the site as a tourist attraction despite its tremendous potential. There are no shops catering to the tourists. I could see only couple of sugarcane juice vendors. While talking to a local I was told that the hills have provided everything to the powers that be as well as the general population sitting in Delhi like water, electricity, wood (a major wood industry thrives in Yamunanagar) etc but the area providing everything remains poor and neglected.

Yamuna is just a trickle after the Hanthikund Barrage as water is channeled into the two canals

The Hathnikund Barrage has been built on the river Yamuna and from here the water is diverted into the Eastern and Western Yamuna canals. After the barrage the free flowing water of the Yamuna is just a trickle. The barrage forms a wetland which attracts migratory birds in the winters and some rafting activities from Paonta Saheb till here.

One of the canals after the Hathnikund Narrage

On the Uttar Pradesh side the road that I covered I saw several mango orchards but the economic condition of the villagers is still not good.

At a mango orchard producing the famous Dassahri

The Hathnikund Barrage was completed in 1999 and got operational in 2002 replacing the Tajewala Barrage three km downstream which was built in 1873.

This is a clarion call to the state governments’ of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to encourage tourism here by providing basic infrastructure.