2025: Fly Ash Dam Breach Flood in India

December 6, 2025December 6, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: HTPS fly ash dam breach floods farmlands in Korba in June 2025. Source)

In 2025 we could find one incident of fly ash dam breach flood in India. The incident happened in Dindolbhantha village area near Chhirhut under Katghora tehsil of Korba district in Chhattisgarh on June 26, 2025. The fly ash dam covering around 60 ha is created by Chhattisgarh State Power Generation Company (CSPGC) formerly known as Chhattisgarh State Electricity Board (CSEB) to store fly ash slurry from 840 Mw (210X4) Hasdeo Thermal Power Station (HTPS) also known as Korba West Thermal Power Station (KWTPS).

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Dam Induced Flood Disaster

2025: Dam Induced Flood Incidents in India

December 5, 2025December 10, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Locals assist in moving flood affected people to a safer place as floodwater enters villages in Ajnala, near Amritsar. Source)

India has witnessed several incidents of dam induced floods during south west monsoon 2025. The most remarkable and devastating episode unfolded in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh states in August 2025 largely due to mismanagement of Bhakra, Pong and Ranjit Sagar dams by BBMB. While negligence of BBMB has invited FIRs in Himachal Pradesh, warnings by Punjab govt and petition in NGT, there is no report in public domain suggesting the authority taking any credible action to make its dam operation scientific and accountable after the disaster.

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Dams, Rivers & People

DRP 011225: Do we know how big is the GLOF threat in the Himalayan states?

December 1, 2025December 1, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Thousands of Glacial lakes dot the Himalayas. Source: NYT)

The following brilliant report on the threat of GLOFs (Glacial Lake Outburst Floods) is noteworthy from many perspectives. But possibly the most important one is to show the unknown but huge dimensions of the threat. Each of the thousands and thousands of glacial lakes in the Himalayas could pose such a threat. Alarmingly, no one can predict in most of these cases, when this threat will materialize, how big the floods it will bring and what will be the dimensions of the downstream impacts.

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Dams, Rivers & People

DRP 241125: Judiciary’s ineffectiveness on Rivers Pollution issues

November 24, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Luni river filled with untreated effluents from Balotra dyeing industries on Nov. 12, 2025. Source: Earth Warrior)

While there is no success story of water pollution control in India, where pollution control boards can claim credit for such success, the judiciary also has a significant role in ensuring pollution control in rivers and other water bodies. The state of rivers and other water bodies in India shows how ineffective has been the judiciary in India. Two cases from this week again provides an opportunity to correct this situation: one a suo moto case in the Supreme Court related to Rajasthan Rivers like Jojari, Bandi and Luni and another one in the Delhi High Court related to Yamuna river in the National Capital.

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Fish, Fisheries, Fisherfolk

WFD 2025: Mass Fish Death in Lakes, Ponds in India

November 23, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Dead fish being removed from Budha Sagar pond in Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh in 1st week on Nov. 2025. Source)

This compilation documents over three dozen incidents of mass fish death that occurred in water bodies including lakes, ponds, tanks and Ramsar wetlands located in Urban and Rural areas across India so far in 2025. Interestingly, most of these incidents are reported just before or after south west monsoon. In urban water bodies sewage contamination, water stagnation, dumping of solid waste have become common reasons for sudden fish mortality. These incidents are quite frequent even in the historic lakes and religious ponds in many cities despite crores of rupees spent in their maintenance by local agencies which is mainly limited to their beatification.

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Dams · Fish, Fisheries, Fisherfolk

WFD 2025: Mass Fish Death in Indian Rivers

November 22, 2025November 24, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Thousands of fish found dead in Mula-Mutha river near Naik Bet, a river island at Bund Garden in last week of Dec. 2024. Source)

Indian rivers continue to witness mass fish death incidents all through the year 2025. Most of these incidents we were able to track have occurred in urban rivers across the country including Mula-Mutha in Pune, Yamuna in Delhi, Gomti in Lucknow and Varuna in Varanasi. Mass fish mortality cases have also happened in streams passing through Nalagarh & Pithampur industrial areas of Himachal Pradesh & Madhya Pradesh. These streams are part of Sutlej-Ghaggar-Yamuna-Chambal river basins & have been facing large scale fish death for years.

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Fish, Fisheries, Fisherfolk

WFD 2025: Struggle & Resistance of Fisherfolks in India

November 21, 2025November 22, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Boats of small fishers in Hooghly river in Haldia. Credit: Rahul Singh/ Mongabay India)

The theme for World Fisheries Day (WFD) 2025, “We have not caught anything, but at your word I will let down the nets” aptly resembles the plight of lakhs of fisherfolks both inland and coastal in India whose livelihoods have apparently been undermined by various development projects. However, amid growing uncertainties they keep up the resistance against the destructive projects to reclaim their rights as the top ten stories of past one year compiled here signifies. This is the fifth part of our annual overview on the subject and in first four parts we have highlighted the positive developments on fisheries, impact of dams on fish diversity and habitats, important studies and new fish species discovered in India during past one year.

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Fish, Fisheries, Fisherfolk

WFD 2025: New Freshwater Fish Discoveries from India

November 21, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: The new species of cyprinid from the Brahmaputra River. Source)

Amid rising threats, the researchers continue to discover new freshwater fish species in India mostly from North East and Western Ghats as shows this overview, prepared on the occasion of World Fisheries Day (WFD) 2025. This is fourth overview and we have covered positive developments, impact of dams, important studies on the subject taking place during the past one year in first, second and third parts of the series.

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Fish, Fisheries, Fisherfolk

WFD 2025: Important Studies, Reports on Freshwater Fish Species, Habitats

November 21, 2025November 23, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

Marking World Fisheries Day (WFD) 2025, we present some of important studies and reports highlighting the growing threats over freshwater fish species in India and across the globe. The multi-taxon global freshwater fauna assessment for The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species published this year is among most concerning report revealing looming extinction threats over 24% of freshwater fauna worldwide. This includes the hump-backed mahseer, subterranean snakehead and peninsular hill trout found in rivers and waterbodies of Western Ghats.

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Dams, Rivers & People · Fish, Fisheries, Fisherfolk

WFD 2025: Impacts of Dams on Inland Fish, Fisherfolks

November 20, 2025November 20, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

On the Occasion of World Fisheries Day (WFD) 2025, SANDRP shares the top ten reports underlining the growing impacts of river obstruction projects on freshwater fish species and dependent fisherfolks in India. Indeed, damming free flowing rivers has become the single biggest reason behind growing extinction rate of aquatic life by severely disrupting their migration routes. The iconic hilsa and mahaseer fish in Ganga and Narmada have declined sharply due to construction of Farakka and Sardar Sarovar dams respectively, among others.

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