River Narmada, this river is the traditional boundary between the north and the south of India. The 1289-kilometer long river has its source in the Amarkandak in the Meykala hills in Madhya Pradesh. Known in different names such as Rewa, Samodbhaya, Mekala, Sutha, the Narmada flows along the valley between the Satpura and Vindhya mountain ranges to cross the states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat before it falls in the Bay of Cambay of the Arabian sea. Its important tributaries: Budnar, Burjer, Shar, Sekhar, Thava, Kundi, Hiran, Barnaa, Osrang. The cities of Jubbalpore, Barwani, Hoshangabad and Omkareswar in Madhya Pradesh, and the Bharooch of Gujarat are on the banks of Narmada. It is India’s lone river flowing through a rift valley.

The Narmada Valley is considered to be the result of a series of earth quakes thousands of years ago, and is a valuable area for the study of Indian Palaeontology. Several fossil remains of dinosaurs, like the Titanosaurus Indicus found by Richard Lidecar in 1877, and the Rajasaurus narmadensis, found recently, have been dug up form the valley.

The controversial Sardar Sarovar Project is across the Narmada. It is a huge project for building up 3200-odd dams, both small and large, launched as per the recommendation of the Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal in 1979. The project is being executed jointly by the states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan and will provide water both for drinking and irrigation purposes, and electric power especially for the parched regions of Saurashtra and Kutch in Gujarat.