Bhadra Dam is located in Chikmagalur district on the border of Bhadravathi and Tarikere, in the western part of Karnataka in India.

It is joined by its tributaries, the Somavahini (drains from a crater and meets Bhadra River at Hebbe), Thadabehalla, and Odirayanahalla.The more than 90% of the catchment area lies in Chikkamagaluru District.

The combined river continues east as the Tungabhadra, a major tributary of the Krishna, which empties into the Bay of Bengal.

The annual yield assessed from a catchment area of 1,968 square kilometres (760 sq mi) at the dam site is 84.63 BCF (billion cubic feet) in a 75% dependable year.

[8] The dam was built to a height of 59.13 metres (194.0 ft) (above the river bed level) between 1947 (start of construction) and 1965 (year of commissioning).

In addition, two number river sluices are also provided to pass a discharge of 13,300 cubic metres (470,000 cu ft)/s.

The annual siltation load considered in the design is 10.78 million cubic feet per square kilometer of catchment area.

Consequently, National Water Management Project (NWMP) was launched with the objective to "rehabilitate and provide more equitable, predictable and reliable irrigation service which could improve agricultural productivity and farm income".

[6] The water stored in the reservoir is diverted through the right and left bank power houses into the respective irrigation canal systems.

The sanctuary has rich avifauna such as junglefowl, red spurfowl, painted bush-quail, emerald dove, southern green imperial pigeon, great black woodpecker, Malabar parakeet and hill myna.

The wildlife can be viewed by taking a boat ride in the reservoir when Tyavarekoppa Lion and Tiger Safari and the Sakkrebyle Elephant Camp can also be visited.