HEXAVALENT CHROMIUM PRESENT IN GODAVARI, EXTENT STILL UNKNOWN: Institutional Apathy & Opacity Ahead of Kumbh Mela

October 26, 2026October 27, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

STATEMENT AND MEMORANDUM

To:

Chief Minister of Maharashtra cm@maharashtra.gov.in
Chief Secretary of Maharashtra cs@maharashtra.gov.in
Secretary of the Environment and Climate Change Department for the Government of Maharashtra psec.env@maharashtra.gov.in
Principal Secretary, Public Health Department for the Government of Maharashtra psec.pubhealth@maharashtra.gov.in
Member Secretary of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) mscb.cpcb@nic.in
Member Secretary of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) ms@mpcb.gov.in
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) ceo@midcindia.org
Municipal Commissioner, Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) commissioner@nmc.gov.in commissionernmc@gmail.com
District Collector, Nashik collectorofficenashik@gmail.com

SUBJECT: INSTITUTIONAL APATHY & OPACITY AHEAD OF KUMBH MELA ON HEXAVALENT CHROMIUM POLLUTION IN NASHIK

Four weeks have elapsed since the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) and the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) were formally notified of acute industrial chemical contamination in the groundwater of Ambad (Dattanagar / Maruti Sankul).

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Dams · River Front Development · Urban Rivers

Unravelling Pune River Front Development: The Five Questions

September 4, 2026September 4, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

The Pune Riverfront Development – designed by HCP Design, Planning and Management Pvt. Ltd. is the same company behind projects like Central Vista and Sabarmati River Front. The riverfront development in Pune is claimed to be a “copy paste” of that from Sabarmati River – a river basin with completely different landscape and conditions than the Mula -Mutha Basin. Experts and researchers flag various faults with this riverfront development. Here’s what architect and river front researcher Sarang Yadwadkar has to say about this particular project from an urban planning lens through his presentation. In this presentation he connects the project DPR, correspondence with and amongst departments, government reports, and government circulars. He connects these to flag the discrepancies in the project which highlights the violation of guidelines and how the rights of citizens to be free from adverse impacts of climate change are violated.

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Climate Change · Dams · Floods · Gandak · Hydropower · Nepal

Nepal Disaster and Hydropower: How Global Banks Downplayed the Risks they Knew

August 29, 2026August 29, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

On the 28th August 2026, Nepali officials roughly doubled their tally of missing people to over 1,900, saying hydropower producers had only recently shared a count of unaccounted-for workers at projects in the devastated river valleys. It is feared that over 900 people are missing from hydropower projects.

This might be a watershed moment for the disaster-torn hydropower boom in South Asia, funded many times by International Financial Corporations and Multilateral Banks like ADB and World Bank, and also Chinese Exim bank.

Hundreds of hydropower labourers, engineers and locals are currently trapped inside tunnels of projects like Upper Trishuli 1 and Trishuli 3A, the latter funded by a loan from China’s Exim bank in the flood ravaged Nepal. More than 350 have been rescued by the valiant efforts of Nepal Army, but many more are still trapped inside the tunnel, including Indians.

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Climate Change · Dams · Maharashtra · River Front Development · Urban Rivers

Riparian Forest 22 degrees Celsius cooler than the Riverfront Project!

July 16, 2026July 17, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

Pune saw some of the warmest summer days and nights this summer. So did several Indian cities. With the recent monsoon, the thoughts of this heat might have washed away but it is important that one does not forget the summer heat. Why? Read More:

*Riparian Forest Photo Credit: Tara Tanmayi S.*

Why run and hurry? Here’s dictionary: Microclimate: Microclimate generally refers to the specific climatic conditions within a small area (such as street, park, riverside, etc.). With rise in extreme events like heat and global warming, microclimate is what make cities/ spaces livable. The temperature difference you experience while driving on a road with no tree cover vs with a tree cover is what microclimate is.

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Dams · Rainfall

Pre Monsoon 2026: District Wise Rainfall in India

July 2, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

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.

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Dams · Floods · Indus · Ravi River

The Nowhere-land of Ravi

June 25, 2026June 29, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

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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Dams

Interview on Interlinking of Rivers: An idea delinked from realities

May 5, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

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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Climate Change · Dams · Groundwater · Himachal Pradesh · Indus · Ravi River

Raj Naun: Can Stories Save our Springs?

April 12, 2026April 14, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

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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Climate Change · Dams · Floods · Himachal Pradesh · Himalayas · Hydropower · Indus · Ravi River

Gaddis: Storytellers of the Ravi Basin

January 24, 2026January 24, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

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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Climate Change · Dam floods · Dams · Floods · Hydro Disaster · Hydropeaking · Hydropower · Indus

The Day Salun Village Fell: Impacts of Cascading Hydropower Projects in the Ravi Basin

December 8, 2025December 8, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

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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