A massive landslide (location: [27.2515, 88.4594]) at Dipu Data near Singtam in Gangtok district that brought down a huge part of a hill above the power house of the NHPC’s 510 MW Teesta V hydropower project on Teesta river in Sikkim at 7.30 in the morning of Aug 20 2024 has damaged the power house. The GIS building above the underground power house located at Balutar can be seen getting destroyed in the massive landslide and getting buried under the debris. The project has been out of operation since the Oct 4 2023 GLOF disaster in Teesta river[i] had over topped the dam and seriously damaged the project.
Continue reading “Aug 2024: Massive Landslide damages NHPC’s Teesta V Hydropower station”Year: 2024
DRP 190824: Goa River group win important battle against illegal sand mining
(Feature Image: Sand extraction in Mandovi river near Candola bridge. Image Credit: GRSPN)
This is indeed a rare and important victory by Goa River Sand Protectors’ Network (GRSPN) in their long fight against illegal river sand mining in Goa. Following a petition in the National Green Tribunal the state government has agreed to recall all the environment clearances granted by the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority.
Goa government has agreed since these clearances were given without a District Survey Report (DSR) as required under the sustainable sand mining guidelines of MoEF. While this may sound like a temporary respite based on some technical violation, the fact is most sand mining clearances across India are given without a credible DSR, but it has not been possible to stop such violations elsewhere.
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Himachal Pradesh: 12 More HEPs Impacted by Cloudburst Disaster in July 2024
(Feature Image: Flashflood damaged Malana I HEP dam site & Sechi HEP powerhouse in Beas & Satluj basin. Image source: Social Media.)
The multiple cloudburst incidents between July 29 and August 01, 2024, has caused large scale devastation in Kullu and Shimla districts of Himachal Pradesh. The initial media reports in brief have mentioned that two hydro electric-power (HEP) projects namely 85 Mw Malana-I and 14 Mw GreeenKo Project being damaged by the flashfloods. The follow up reports have extensive coverage on rescue and relief works, but not much is revealed about scale of damages to the HEP projects.
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DRP 120824: Chalakudy community demand Prudent Dam Management Plan
(Feature Image: Water flows through the gates of the Peringalkuthu dam on Chalakudy river after a sluice was opened following heavy rain in Thrissur on Aug. 04, 2022. Photo Credit: PTI/The Hindu)
One of the heartening development this week is from Kerala, where Chalakudy river community held a satyagraha to demand proper integrated dam management plan in the Chalakudy River basin to minimize flood risks. It is rather rare that communities come out for such a demand. It was also great to see that the satyagraha was supported by Chalakudy Puzha Samrakshan Samiti, Chalakudy municipal chairman and also environmentalists.
The satyagraha in fact had specific demand for each of the dams included in the Paramibikulam Aliyar Project, including in Kerala and upstream Tamil Nadu. We hope the Kerala government positively responds to these demands at the earliest.
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High Rainfall days in India’s districts in July 2024
An analysis of the daily district wise rainfall data from India Meteorological Department (IMD) for July 2024 shows that there were 914 (up from 855 in July 2023, 809 in July 2022 and 717 in July 2021) instances when district rainfall of a day was above 50 mm. Such high rainfall instances included 730 (up from 660 in July 2023, 663 in July 2022, 595 in July 2021) instances when rainfall was 50-100 mm, 143 (149 in July 2023, 107 in July 2022, 98 in July 2021) instances when it was 100-150 mm, 27 (34 in July 2023, 28 in July 2022, 17 in July 2021) times it was 150-200 mm and 14 (12 in July 2023, 16 in July 2022 and 7 in July 2021) times above when rainfall in July 2024 when rainfall was above 200 mm. As noted in earlier article[i], the July 2024 rainfall all over India was 9.3% above normal.
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Tungabhadra Dam: A Crest Gate washed away in August 2024
In a major dam related disaster at around 10.50 pm on Aug 10, 2024[i], one of the crest gates at the Tungabhadra dam has broken[ii] near Hospete in Vijayanagara district in Karnataka, causing the release of 70,000 to 100,000 cusecs of stored water. The chain on the 19th (of total 33 gates) gate of Tungabhadra dam on Tungabhadra river, part of Krishna River Basin, got cut, snapped and was washed away about 100 m from the dam on Saturday. The chain that was used to operate the gate snapped as the welding gave way. The Tungabhadra gates only have chain and not chain and rope as in some other dams. The force of the water in the dam swept the 60-foot-by-20-foot gate, weighing around 20 tonnes, some 500 ft away, J Purushottham, president of the Tungabhadra Farmers’Association, said. This possibly happened due to heavy flows, but also due to wear and tear of over 70 years of operation of the dam. A temporary stop log gate is now being planned, as permanent crest gate will take time.
The disaster raises a number of questions about the operation and maintenance of the dam.
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Yamuna Manthan 080824: Welcome Judicial Decisions for River Floodplain
(Feature Image: Yamuna floodplain downstream old railway bridge Delhi. March 2024, SANDRP)
In the past one month there have been some interesting judicial interventions taking up the matters of floodplain, pollution and aquatic eco-system of the Yamuna River in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Of these, the most significant one is the NGT order on July 11 fining MoJS & CWC of ₹50 000 each for the non-demarcation of floodplain in Agra.
The fine was to be submitted before Aug. 06,2024 hearing but there is no update available so far on this. It is also not clear whether Yamuna floodplain has been demarcated and officially notified in Agra stretch or not. Earlier in May 2019 and March 2022, the NGT had asked for demarcation of Yamuna floodplain in Agra and Mathura respectively.
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June July 2024: District wise rainfall in India’s SW Monsoon
In the month of July 2024, the second month of India’s South West 2024 monsoon, India received 306.6 mm (318.4 in July 2023[i] and 327.7 mm in July 2022[ii]) rainfall, 9.3 % above (13.5% above normal in July 2023 and 16.8% above normal in July 2022) the normal July rainfall of 280.5 mm as per India Meteorological department. So this is the third consecutive year when rainfall in July is above normal. In July 2021, the rainfall was 266.1 mm[iii], about 6.7% below normal and in July 2020, the rainfall was 257.1 mm[iv], or about 9.9% below normal.
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Clueless about fish passes: CIFRI’s Review of fish pass research in India
Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (CIFRI) is a premier institute under the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare, Government of India. It is one of the only government institutes researching the status of inland fisheries and recommending steps to improve fisheries and well-being of dependent population. Founded in 1947, an expert from CIFRI sits on the Expert Appraisal Committee, (EAC) on River Valley Projects of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF and CC), recommending environmental clearances to dam projects across the country. This expert is supposed to look at impacts on fish diversity, fisheries and dependent population and judge whether the project is feasible or not based on its impact and possible mitigation measures.
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DRP 050824: Cities fail monsoon test
(Feature Image by Cartoonist Alok/ Sakal, July 25, 2024)
This monsoon has again shown how our cities have been failing the monsoon test for decades. As rightly suggested in the Indian Express Edit this week, main reasons are: outdated drainage systems, planning that is blind to local hydrology and pathetic state of civic agencies. The last factor in fact needs to change to failed governance at all levels. There is no water or flood policy that guides our cities, nor is there any reward for improving governance, nor any penalties for lack of it.
In fact, with better rainwater management, cities can convert this problem into a blessing, both in terms of water security and also improved state of urban landscape. This would be possible if it prioritizes the city’s capacity to hold, store, recharge and drain the rainwater. Instead, the cities are busying destroying such capacities by destroying the rivers, ridges, forests, local water bodies, groundwater recharge capacities and also the drainage capacity.
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SANDRP 