In the three month pre monsoon season (March 1 to May 31, 2026) India received 131.3 mm (185.8 mm in Pre-Monsoon 2025, 125.9 mm in Pre-Monsoon 2024, 146.6 mm in Pre Monsoon 2023[i]) rainfall, 0.54% above (42% above normal in Pre-Monsoon 2025, 4% below normal in Pre-Monsoon 2024 and 12% above in Pre Monsoon 2023) the normal rainfall of 130.6 mm as per the India Meteorological Department (IMD). In 2020[ii] , 2021[iii] and 2022[iv] India received 158.5 mm, 155.2 mm and 130.6 or 20% above normal, 18% above normal and 1% below rainfall respectively. So, India has received above normal rainfall in 5 of the last 7 years in Pre-Monsoon season since 2020.
Continue reading “Pre Monsoon 2026: District Wise Rainfall in India”Category: Dams
The Nowhere-land of Ravi
As we reached Makora Pattan, sun was setting over the River Ravi and before us spread a sea of oranges and rubies. Late October kash blooms crowded the high sandy banks and across the vast silken expanse of water, the other bank was barely visible. Rivers of the Indus basin are called Darya in the plains of Punjab. Darya: a word interchangeable with the sea.
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Interview on Interlinking of Rivers: An idea delinked from realities
Q. The government has chalked out an ambitious National Perspective Plan(NPP) for Water Resource De elopement which will interlink 37 rivers whose cost will run into over Rs10 lakh crores. This scheme has been vehemently opposed by scientists and yet we see the government pushing it through. Whose brain wave is this? Your comments.
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Raj Naun: Can Stories Save our Springs?
How can we drink this cool water?
For we will see you in it for all our life
Night of atonement, oh girls, oh birds.
~ Sukrat, an elegy for Queen Suhi who was sacrificed for Chamba’s water[1]
Raj Naun, the Royal Fountain House in Chamba is not what I imagined it to be. After reading and thinking about it obsessively for over a year what lies ahead is not a homage to water but a structure in ruins. The Raj Naun has vaulted ceilings, arches and two beautifully carved waterspouts to channel a robust Himalayan spring. But the spouts are dry, the chamber is full of garbage, bottles of alcohol, stacks of firewood, packets of chips lie around. There is that unmissable stench of urine.
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Gaddis: Storytellers of the Ravi Basin
As we stood on a ridge near the Lakke Wali Mata shrine, a tributary of the Ravi roared below in a deep gorge. Across it rose a shaded, Devdar (Himalayan Cedar)-covered mountain slope, etched by a steep brown trail. As we stood there observing the headwaters of Ravi, we noticed that the trail was moving.
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The Day Salun Village Fell: Impacts of Cascading Hydropower Projects in the Ravi Basin
Salun village, perched roughly 50 feet above the Ravi River, had its moment of fame on the 26th August 2025 — a moment that also became its last. On the dark, rainy afternoon, the small village with homes, rajma fields, apple orchards and cattle sheds collapsed into the flooded River Ravi like a house of cards. In a matter of 30 minutes, ancestral homes with warm hearths, blankets for the coming winter, old report cards and wedding albums, adhar cards and bankbooks-entire archives of living-were erased. Villagers, who managed to escape in time stood in awe and saw their village going extinct before their eyes.
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WFD 2025: Mass Fish Death in Indian Rivers
(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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Himachal Pradesh: Sainj HEP Remains Out of Operation for over 4 months
(Feature Image: Outlet of Sainj HEP powerhouse tunnel buried under silt in last week of June 2025. Source: Hariram Chaudhary, Sainj)
The Sainj Hydroelectric Project (HEP) in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh has been out of operation for over the past four months. The 100 Mw project of the Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (HPPCL) is the fourth HEP which was severely affected by flash flood in Jiwa nullah on June 25, 2025.
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National Dolphin Day 2025: Deaths, Threats, Conservation Efforts related to Gangetic Dolphins
(Feature Image: Carcass of a Gangetic dolphin found on Ganga river bank in Sahibganj district on Oct. 02, 2025)
Oct. 5 is marked as National Dolphin Day since 2022 after a decision by the NBWL in its 67th meeting in March 2022. Earlier the day was designated as Ganga River Dolphin Day. Bihar has been celebrating Oct. 5 as ‘Dolphin Day’ for the past many years. In May 2010, the MoEF had notified the Gangetic Dolphin as ‘National Aquatic Animal’ and in Aug. 2022 launched the Project Dolphin.
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Sept 2025: 5 die when Kadana dam water release floods Gujarat Hydro project
At around 3 pm on Sept 4, in a major disaster, water gushed into under repair power house of 12 MW Ajanta hydropower plant on Mahi river near Tatroli village in Mahisagar district of Gujarat. The project is located on Dolatpur weir of Kadana dam on Mahi River, about 20 km downstream of the dam. Out of about 15 workers present, five are missing and so far one dead body have been found on Friday evening. Rest of the workers could escape and save them themselves. The project had faced damaging disaster earlier too. The water seems to have come from the discharge of huge quantity of water from upstream Kadana dam. The project owning company was also involved in the Morbi Bridge disaster earlier.
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SANDRP 