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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Did Ichari, Vyasi Dams Influence Yamuna Floods in 2025?

October 20, 2025 SANDRP1 Comment

(Feature Image: Ichari (Koti) Dam on Tons river in Dehradun in empty condition in first week of Sept. 25)

In the South West Monsoon 2025, the Yamuna river witnessed 3 flood spells in a span of two weeks between Aug. 17 and Sep 1. In the first and medium scale flood spell, hourly discharges crossed 1 lakh cusecs for 12 hours on Aug 17 and 1,78,996 cusecs flood was recorded at 16 hour at Hathnikund Barrage (HKB), in Yamuna Nagar, Haryana.

In the second and low scale flood spell, river received above 50,000 cusecs discharges for 21 hours on Aug. 29 with the peak volume of 83,774 cusecs at 16 hour. In the final and first high scale flood spell, hourly water volume in the river crossed 1 lakh cusecs for about 129 hours beginning at 4.00 hour on Sep 1 till 12:00 hour on Sep 5, and 3,29,313 lakh cusecs was recorded as peak flood volume at 9:00 hour on Sep 1.

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floodplains · Floods · Urban Flood · Urban Rivers · Yamuna River

Yamuna Photo Blog Sept 2025: ‘Riverfront’ Projects submerged Again

September 18, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Entrace of Asita West projects flooded with Yamuna water on Sept. 05. 2025. Credit: Surendar Solanki)

Through pictures and satellite imagery, this blog documents the impact of Sept. 2025 Yamuna flood on Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) riverfront projects. These 10 projects are being developed over the past 8 years in river floodplain and had also suffered damages during July 2023 floods. Earlier they were called part of floodplain rejuvenation but now being termed as Yamuna riverfront projects. DDA website has only shown name, size and location of riverfront projects, however has maintained secrecy on important factors of cost, progress, delays, damage and losses concerning these projects.

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Dam floods · Dam Safety · Indus · Monsoon

Aug 2025: Ravi Flood Damages Madhopur Barrage Gates in Punjab

August 29, 2025December 13, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: 2 gates of the Madhopur Barrage washed away on Aug 27, flooding parts of Pathankot & Gurdaspur.)

A severe flood spell in Ravi river has damaged at least three flood gates of Madhopur barrage in Pathankot district of Punjab. The incident occurred in the evening of Aug 27, 2025 amid an effort to open the jammed gates of the barrage. The situation became critical after 2.12 lakh cusecs of water discharged from the upstream Ranjit Sagar Dam (RSD) dangerously increased the flood level at the barrage on Aug. 26.

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Climate Change · Dam floods · Disasters

Aug 2025: Surwal Dam Floods Villages in Sawai Madhopur-Rajasthan

August 26, 2025August 27, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Surwal dam flood creates a huge crater in Jarwata village in Sawai Madhopur)

Overflowing of Surwal dam in Rajasthan has severely affected over a dozen villages for more than three days. The dam in Sawai Madhopur district overflowed following excessive rainfall on Aug 22-24, 2025[i]. The Surwal, Mainpura, Jarwata were among the most affected villages where several houses were submerged under 3-5 feet flood water damaging foodgrains and other essential items.

At least 13 people have been reported dead in the district in this flood episode.

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Urban Flood · Yamuna River

MoJS Comm. Report on July 2023 Delhi Floods: Fails to explain unprecedented flood levels

April 10, 2025April 10, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: A view of overflowing Yamuna river at Wazirabad in New Delhi on 13 July 2023. Credit: HT_PRINT/Source: Live Mint)

Post July 2023 unusual flood spell in Yamuna river reaching unprecedented levels in Delhi, the Ministry of Jal Shakti (MoJS) on August 06, 2023, constituted a committee for conducting a “Joint flood management study of river Yamuna for its reach between Hathnikund and Okhla Barrage”. The Committee headed by Chairman, Central Water Commission (CWC) & Ex-Officio Secretary to Govt of India with members from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, NCT of Delhi and expert Organizations was mandated to examine the meteorological aspects, return period of floods, discharging capacity of barrages, functional requirement of ITO barrage, etc.

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Urban Flood

2024: Dam Induced Floods in Urban India

January 3, 2025 SANDRP1 Comment

(Feature Image: A drone visual of the flood-affected areas of Vijayawada city on Sept. 6, 2024. Credit: ANI Photo/Source: Rediff.com)

Having covered dam induced flood incidents and embankment breach flooding events in part 1 and part 2, this third part on annual overview compiles media reports on manmade Urban flood disasters in India during the year 2024. While the cities of Pune, Nasik, Nagpur, Vadodara and Bharuch were affected by dam induced floods, the high discharges from Prakasam barrage and multiple breaches in Budameru river deluged the Vijayawada city. Interestingly, these urban flood episodes coincided with heavy rainfall events giving a reality check to dam and city managers.

In addition to failure in dam management, the deluge in Pune, Vadodara and Vijayawada city were particularly worsened by river front development projects and encroachment on river floodplains putting question marks on the urban planning and development works in these cities. Similarly, the breach in embankment of Munak canal in Delhi flooded several homes Bawana area during the monsoon season.

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Dam floods

2024: Do Embankments save from floods or worsen the disasters?

January 3, 2025January 3, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: NDRF personnel conduct a rescue operation at a flood-affected area in Bihar’s Supaul district. Image Credit: PTI/Source Live Mint, Sept. 30)

India has seen several floods brought by breach of embankments during the 2024 monsoon. In Bihar, though the state has received deficit rainfalls, the overspilling of barrages and breaching of several embankments created widescale flood damages. Number of reports have again highlighted the ineffective and adverse role being played by flood protection structures in worsening the deluge impacts. The first part of the overview has covered dam induced flood incidents in the country during 2024 and third part has highlighted incidents of dam induced urban floods.

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Dam floods

2024: Dam Induced Floods in India

January 2, 2025January 18, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Breach in the earth dam of Peddavagu project flooded several villages in Telangana & Andhra Pradesh on July 17, 2024. Source: DC)

India has seen several manmade flood disasters during the 2024 monsoon. The mismanagement of dams in Narmada valley including Bargi, and SSP inundated several dam affected villages despite adequate actionable advance warnings. The uninformed excess releases from DVC dams have led to flooding in large areas in West Bengal as repeatedly raised by the state government. The extensive floods in Tripura have revealed glaring loopholes in flood prevention and disaster management.

The floods in the year have also washed away or damaged several earthen dams, tanks in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan affecting human population, agricultural lands in their vicinity. Even during Northeast monsoon, the sudden releases from Sathanur and Veedur dams in Tamil Nadu created avoidable flood damage in downstream areas. Similarly, the states of Gujarat, Telangana, Haryana and Delhi have seen deluge due to mismanagement or breaches in the canals. The case of Narmada canal waters flooding large areas of Little Runn of Kutch is quite concerning.

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Dam floods · Dam Induced Flood Disaster · Dam Safety

August 2024: Tonga Dam Breach floods Madhya Pradesh villages

September 11, 2024September 11, 2024 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Breach in Tonga dam. Source: ETV Bharat)

A breach in earthen Tonga dam has flooded half a dozen villages in Sabalgarh tehsil of Morena district in Madhya Pradesh. The breach occurred in intervening night of August 12-13, 2024. As per reports, the dam first overflowed following rainfall, leading to the breach.

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