Yamuna Jayanti : An Unforgettable River Journey Through Pictures..
Dams

Yamuna Jayanti : An Unforgettable River Journey Through Pictures..

SANDRP4 Comments

Tomorrow on 12th April is Yamuna Jayanti the birth anniversary of River Yamuna. The festival is also known as Yamuna Chhath  and is celebrated on Shashthi sixth day of Shukla Paksha in Chaitra month that falls during Navratri.  The auspicious day commemorates the decent of Goddess Yamuna on Earth and is therefore celebrated with great pomp and show in the city of Mathura and Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh.

While thousands of devotees and dependents seek Yamuna’s blessing and wish the river to flow eternally and keep providing sustenance and livelihoods to millions on the occasion to celebrate the day SANDRP has managed to collect the latest pictures of the River all through its entire 1376km length right from Yamnotri the origin place till it merges into Ganga at Allahbad. The pictorial report clearly shows the bleak future of the river which is also the largest tributary of our national river the Ganga.

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Amidst a dismal Maharashtra drought, Seeds of change in Solapur
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Amidst a dismal Maharashtra drought, Seeds of change in Solapur

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Solapur, a chronically drought-hit district in Maharashtra was serviced with more than 200 tankers in 2013-14, even when the monsoon was good. In this drought, there are only 16 tankers plying in Solapur. Drinking water sources have been secured. The district leads the way in Jal Yukta Shivar Program in the state, new avenues of Agricultural credit are opening, options to sugarcane are being developed, errant sugar factories are being fined for polluting drinking water sources…

All this sounds too good to be true in a state where it seems lessons are not being learnt from 3 droughts in past 4 years. But it is happening. These positive stories deserve to be told at a time when overall situation appears dismal.. Continue reading “Amidst a dismal Maharashtra drought, Seeds of change in Solapur” →

Bihar Floods in 1987 – II – East Champaran
Bihar · Floods

Bihar Floods in 1987 – II – East Champaran

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Above: Cover photo and map from NIDM report of Bihar floods 2007

Guest blog by Dr. Dinesh Kumar Mishra

Floods in East Champaran started following the heavy rainfall in the last week of July 1987. There was a sudden rise in the flood levels of the tributaries of the Burhi Gandak (Sikrahana) like the Sarisawa, the Tilawe, the Gaadh, and the Bangari leading to submergence of lower areas of Raxaul town where flood water of depth up to two to two and half feet was spread all over. This initial flood had also affected 25 Panchayats and 125 villages in the blocks of Raxaul and Ramgarhawa. The rains that set in on the 26th July, 1987 continued unabated and by the time of the beginning of August all the major rivers –the Gandak, the Burhi Gandak and the Bagmati were in spate. Road communication of Motihari, the district HQ of East Champaran, was disrupted fully in this very first spell of floods. There was three feet deep water passing over NH-28 near Chhapwa. The road to Bettiah and Areraj was too badly damaged to afford vehicular traffic to pass through. Road from Pipra Kothi to Siwan was already damaged much before the rains and its condition deteriorated further after rains.  All the three rivers were flowing above danger mark on the 2nd August, 1987 and a vast cultivated area along with hundreds of villages came under a sheet of flood water of these rivers. The train service between Sugauli and Darbhanga was suspended because of flood water on the railway track. Continue reading “Bihar Floods in 1987 – II – East Champaran” →

Urban Wetlands and Floods
Urban Water Sector · Wetlands

Urban Wetlands and Floods

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In city after city wetlands are being built over, for houses, markets and offices to meet the demands of an increasing urban population. As agriculture is being rendered unviable because of soaring costs of inputs, declining prices of farm products, lack of water arising from water diversions and drought conditions and low support prices, there is increasing scale of urban migration. Availability of cheap, migrant labour alongwith the government’s policies to invite investment in the manufacturing sector, opening up of more sectors for foreign direct investment and weakening of labour laws have led to ‘development’ of many suburbs into industrial corridors, manufacturing hubs and economic zones. This suburban expansion has translated into a take over of wetlands which, until recently, were tilled by farmers or were the abode of birds or covered by mangroves. The development of the suburb is usually accompanied by a property boom in the new area which leads to complete destruction of the local ecology and construction of offices, residential complexes, shopping malls, educational institutions, parking spaces and other infrastructure for the urban elite and middle class.

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Dams · DRP News Bulletin

DRP: 4 April 2016 (India Water Week shows absence of fresh thinking from water resources establishment)

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SANDRP Comments India Water Week continues to show absence of any fresh thinking from water resources establishment The 4th India Water Week being organized by Union Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation during April 4-8, 2016 in Delhi shows continued absence of any fresh thinking from water resources establishment.

The Information Brochure of the event says: “Ministry of Water Resources, RD & GR is to organize the India Water Week -2016 between April 4-8, 2016 to use it as a platform to elicit ideas and opinions from global level decision makers, politicians, researchers and entrepreneurs in the ­field of water resources for mutual benefi­t and goodwill… This is the fourth event of its kind with the theme “Water for all : Striving together” focusing on improving efficiencies of water use across all sectors… ”

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Fish Sanctuaries in Western Ghats of Maharashtra
Fish Sanctuaries

Fish Sanctuaries in Western Ghats of Maharashtra

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Above: Near the fish Sanctuary at Tekpowale, Pune Photo: Sarosh Ali

Introduction .

In India, there has been a rich tradition of communities trying to conserve a part of their ecosystem as a microcosm for the rest. The Western Ghats in particular was home to myriad of such community sanctuaries. These, however, diminished as government policies from the time of the British, and even post-independence, did not realize the importance of community involvement.

There are many community conserved areas (CCAs), some that have existed from ancient times, and some which have emerged in recent times, after having observed some form of degradation, related to local communities are trying to salvage the ecosystem in Western Ghats. While Sacred Groves, or protected patches of forests are relatively well documented, sacred fish sanctuaries which protect the fish as well as rivers, are lesser known. This is an attempt to briefly document a few such sanctuaries in Western Ghats of Maharashtra. Continue reading “Fish Sanctuaries in Western Ghats of Maharashtra” →

Sugar Industry Lifts (read steals) drinking water released for Maharashtra’s Drought-hit places
Marathwada

Sugar Industry Lifts (read steals) drinking water released for Maharashtra’s Drought-hit places

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Above: Dry Pravara River Bed, with sugarcane on one side and frantic well drilling in the riverbed on the other (Photo: Parineeta Dandekar)

Large parts of Maharashtra are facing possibly the worst droughts in the past 100 years, the third drought in the last 4 years. There are multiple components to this: poor rainfall in 2015 monsoon on the back of failed 2014 monsoon, relative dry winter, loss of four back to back crops, dangerously depleting groundwater levels and no restriction on water intensive crops, water use by urban areas and industry. Currently, the situation is unprecedented even for drinking water. Section 144 has been clamped in Latur, possibly first time in the history for safeguarding water sources, protect tanker water supply and avoid unrest. Continue reading “Sugar Industry Lifts (read steals) drinking water released for Maharashtra’s Drought-hit places” →

Dams · DRP News Bulletin

DRP: 28 March 2016(Is India facing its worst-ever water crisis?)

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Is India facing its worst-ever water crisis? On 11 March first time in 30 years history power generation at Farakka power plant in West Bengal was suspended for 10 days due to non-availability of water in Ganges. Nobody is sure why but the evidence about the declining water levels and waning health of the 2,500km long Ganges is mounting. Monsoon rains have been scanty for the second year in succession. The melting of snow in the Himalayas has been delayed. Water tables have also been declining in the Ganges basin due to the reckless extraction of groundwater. The 3-month-long summer is barely weeks away but water availability in India’s 91 reservoirs is at its lowest in a decade, with stocks at a paltry 29% of their total storage capacity, according to the Central Water Commission. Thousands of villagers in drought-hit region of Maharashtra depend on tankers for water & authorities in Latur district, fearing violence, have imposed prohibitory orders on gatherings of more than 5 people around storage tanks. Tens of thousands of farmers and livestock have moved to camps providing free fodder and water for animals in parched districts. The govt has asked local municipalities to stop supplying water to swimming pools. States like Punjab are squabbling over ownership of river waters. In water-scarce Orissa, farmers have reportedly breached embankments to save their crops. Realy the waning health of the sacred river underscores the rising crisis of water in India.

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Bihar Floods of 1987-I
Bihar · Floods

Bihar Floods of 1987-I

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Above: Cover photo and map from NIDM report on Bihar floods of 2007

GUEST BLOG BY Dr. Dinesh Kumar Mishra (dkmishra108@gmail.com)

 Background Bihar faced the worst floods if its history in 1987[1], the records of which are yet to be bettered. In the preceding year of 1986 the flood was severe in many parts of Bihar but as the rainy season drew to close, the last October rains failed and a vast area of the State came under the grip of drought. Surprisingly, the districts cited for perennial floods like Saharsa, Purnea and Khagaria in the State were also hit by the drought. The year 1987, however, was worst for floods in Bihar (in addition to UP and W Bengal) while the rest of the country was facing one of the most severe droughts in the century. Many parts of the country were facing famine like situation while all the rain bearing clouds had moved toward Bihar. Traditionally, two days of continuous rains or a clear sky of the same duration during the rainy season signals floods or drought in the State and makes farmers apprehensive of the days to come. Continue reading “Bihar Floods of 1987-I” →