June 2025: Indira Priyadarshini HEP in Himachal: Workers missing, Project damaged

June 26, 2025March 25, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature image rescue work in Manuni khad in Khaniyar, Kangra on 26 June 2025. Source: Himachal Abhi Abhi)

In a tragic incident several workers of under construction Indira Priyadarshini Hydel Project are missing after a ‘cloudburst’ induced flash flood struck the project site on June 25, 2025. The 4.8 Mw (2.4 X 2) small hydro power project is being developed by Indira Priyadarshini Hydro Power Pvt Ltd (IPHPPL) on Manuni khad near Sokani Da Kot village under Khaniyara post office of Dharamshala tehsil in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh. Manuni khad is a tributary of Baner River in Beas basin. The construction work started in Dec 2019 & was scheduled for commissioning in May 2026.

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Rivers

Message after 50 yrs of Gharial conservation: Save Rivers if we really want to save Gharials

June 26, 2025March 25, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

The Central message after fifty years of Gharial Conservation effort since 1975 is that Gharial’s fate remains precarious. It seems like a species living on borrowed time, forever on the verge of extinction. It is living thanks to a few scientists, forest officials and some riverside communities. And if we really want to save Gharials, we must save rivers, the habitat of Gharials from sand mining, dams and pollution.

If the next 50 years of Gharial conservation are to be more successful than the last, India will need to protect not just a species, but an entire ecosystem. Gharials can be saved only if their habitat, rivers can be saved. India showed the will to save tigers starting early 1970s, but is there a will to save some of the rivers to save gharials?

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Climate Change · Dams · Groundwater · Rivers · Water

DRP 16 June 2025: “Indus River older than its landscape, Himalayas”

June 16, 2025June 16, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

INDUS RIVER: Stephen Alter, in his article “With the River by My Side” says about Indus River that some rivers are older than the landscape through which they pass: “Nowhere is this clash between hydrological and geological history more apparent than along the Indus, as it passed through Ladakh. This seemingly eternal river has followed its winding course since long before the Himalaya were formed, tossing and tumbling over. Boulders, stones and pebbles that the water polishes and grinds into sand. Eroded flanks of the mountains on either side of the river are scarred and twisted by tectonic forces that lifted giant slabs of rock more than eight kilometres into the clouds but failed to block the persistent flow of the Indus. Driving along the highway that runs parallel to the river, from Leh to Kargil, it feels as if the landscape is a timeless epic that the waters of the Indus have etched in stone.”

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brahmaputra · Dams, Rivers & People

Dams, Rivers & People: June 9 2025: The Myths around Brahmaputra River

June 9, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

The Brahmaputra is believed to have two mythological fathers – Lord Brahma and sage Shantanu. In the 16^th-century text Yogini Tantra, dedicated to the worship of goddesses like Kali and Kamakhya, the river is linked to an ancient ablution ritual with the following invocation:
O Son of Brahma! O Son of Shantanu! O Lohit! O Son of Lohit!
I bow before you, wash away my sins of the last three births.

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Climate Change · Dams · Rivers · Water · Water Options

DRP 020625

June 2, 2025June 16, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

HYDRO POWER PROJECTS

Jammu & Kashmir In Kupwara district the 12 Mw Karnah in Kishan Ganga sub basin has joined the long list of HEP projects facing reoccurring damages, repeated delays and cost escalation in Himalayan states. The flash flood, landslides and cloudburst disasters in Feb and May 2025 have further damaged the project and extended its completion date.

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Chenab · Climate Change · Himalayas · Hydropower

Of Landslides, Spirits and Stories

May 17, 2025May 17, 2025 SANDRP1 Comment

The Science and Myth surrounding a Himalayan Landslide

Here, in this central spot where three valleys come together
Is the triangle from which all phenomena originate,
An abode of the yoginis of the past,
A place for practitioners in the future.
~ A Tibetan prayer to the sacred Drilbu Ri Mountain where Rivers Chandra and Bhaga meet to form the Chenab

On a crisp September morning, we clank across an iron suspension bridge on the River Chandra to enter the valley of Bhaga. We are tracing the origins of Bhaga and will be reaching Barlacha La pass at an altitude of 15,900 feet in a few hours. Madly fluttering prayer flags swaddling the bridge and the roaring river below make it seem as if, like the prayers, we are adrift on the wind too. Below, on the toasty river sands, a few men doze like monitor lizards.

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Chenab · Climate Change · Glaciers · Hydropower · Indus

Infrastructure Projects in Chenab Basin and Climate Change: Need to Exercise Caution

April 27, 2025April 27, 2025 SANDRP1 Comment

The current developments around Indus Waters Treaty are deeply troubling. Following the heinous attack on tourists in Pehelgam, India has announced that Indus Waters Treaty, the only water sharing mechanism between India and Pakistan put in place in 1960, has been put in abeyance.

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Chenab · Climate Change · Floods · Glaciers · Himachal Pradesh · Lahaul, Lindur · Landslide · Landslide dam

A Sinking Village & a Stream that Floods in the Sun: Climate Change, Jahlma Nallah and Lindur in Chenab Basin

April 17, 2025May 17, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

At the village of Jasrath in Lahaul and Spiti, the River Chandrabhaga’s current is swift and strong like a rambunctious toddler. The river is new here, birthed just 16 kms upstream at the confluence of the Rivers Chandra and Bhaga. Chandrabhaga will be named as Chenab only after a journey of about 400 kms downstream. Chenab is one of the largest tributaries of the River Indus whose expansive basin feeds over 250 million people in the heart of Asia.

Lahaul and Spiti district in Himachal Pradesh is a cold desert with very little rain, but the narrow ribbons of land along the Chandrabhaga are emerald with willows, apple orchards and cultivated farms. This is precious land.

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Agriculture · Chenab · Fish Sanctuaries · Groundwater · Hydropower · Indus

The Moon River: People’s Story of Chenab

April 15, 2025April 17, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

Chenab, which translates as the Moon River is the largest of the five tributaries of River Indus. It flows for about 974 kilometers from the High Himalayas of Lahaul to the forests of Jammu and Kashmir and onto the plains of Pakistan. Its main tributaries in India include Miyar, Marusudhar and Tawi. In the vast plains of Punjab in Pakistan, it is met by Jhelum, Ravi and Sutlej to form the mighty Panjnad before it meets the Indus. Its catchment, spread across 67,430 km2, is shared between the two countries.

Chenab is Chandrabhaga (Crescent Moon) in its headwaters. It was the River Asikni in Rigveda, and the Acesines for the ancient Greek. From sparse mountain settlements of Lahaul to the bustling urban centers of Sialkot, more than 10 million people live and prosper along the Chenab. Hydropower projects operational and under constructions on the river have an installed capacity of more than 5000 MW (Central Electricity Authority 2024), and its canals irrigate hundreds of thousands of acres in Pakistan and India (Shakir et al).

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Chenab · Climate Change · CWC - Central Water Commission · Himachal Pradesh · Hydropower

Hydropower-GLOF Nexus in Chenab Headwaters: Absence of credible studies and accountable governance

April 10, 2025April 10, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

Increasing incidences of Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) are being experienced in the Indian Himalayas. One of the most notable examples of GLOF was the Chorabari Lake GLOF that occurred on 16^th June 2013 in Kedarnath, Uttarakhand[1] which was triggered by heavy rainfall induced mass movements into the lake. The GLOF devastated villages of Kedarnath, Rambara, and Gaurikund. Around 6,000 people were officially killed, and a significant number of the deaths were linked to the GLOF. Countless bridges and roads were washed away, and about thirty hydropower plants were affected or completely devastated. Several Hydropower projects resulted in exponential losses to life and livelihoods. Whole of Uttarakhand was affected in the disaster, and a significant proportion of it was related with GLOF.

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