DRP 090821: Doubtful validity of GOI’s July 15 notification on AP-Telangana water disputes

August 9, 2021February 20, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature image: Two Telugu states, one river — why Andhra & Telangana are fighting it out over the Krishna https://theprint.in/india/two-telugu-states-one-river-why-andhra-telangana-are-fighting-it-out-over-the-krishna/696801/)

The July 15 2021 Govt of India notification on Andhra Pradesh-Telangana water disputes is of doubtful legal validity and the Supreme Court urgently needs to examine this. The 2014 AP Regorganisation Act didn’t make provision for the Centre to take over water infrastructure of the two states, which is what effectively the centre has done through the July 15 notification. The Jul 15 notification effectively dismissing powers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana without any consultations and there is no provision in constitution for this.

There is no doubt that the long lingering water sharing disputes between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and which was the major reason for the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, needs to be resolved. But the blame for not achieving any resolution of the disputes also lies with the Centre, the KRMB and GRMB are not even functioning with necessary urgency or effectiveness.

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July 2021: High Rainfall days in India’s districts

August 6, 2021 SANDRPLeave a comment

An analysis of the daily district wise rainfall data from India Meteorological Department (IMD) for the month of July 2021, the 2^nd month of India’s South West Monsoon 2021 shows that there were 717 instances when district rainfall of a day was above 50 mm. [Considering that the normal monthly rainfall of India July is 285.3 mm, the average daily rainfall in this month is about 9.2 mm.] Such high rainfall instances included 595 instances when rainfall was 50-100 mm, 98 instances when it was 100-150 mm, 17 times it was 150-200 mm and 7 times above 200 mm. Interestingly, in June 2021[i] too there were seven instances when rainfall was above 200 mm, when the rainfall is supposed to be much below July rainfall. As noted in detailed article[ii], the July 2021 rainfall all over India was 6.7% below normal.

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River Front Development

PUNE RIVER FRONT DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

August 5, 2021August 6, 2021 SANDRP2 Comments

GUEST ARTICLE BY SARANG YADWADKAR

Pune,
A city along the banks of five rivers,
A city with 7 dams on the upstream,
A city surrounded by pristine green hills,
Hence probably the only city to enjoy abundance of water even in drought like situation.

Due to this abundant availability of water, the city of Pune grew very rapidly. But this situation has a darker side of frequent flooding as well, which the citizens have witnessed and experienced quite a few times. The most recent example, is the floods in 2019. In a few hours hundreds of houses were washed away; properties worth Crores of rupees were destroyed and 25 innocent people lost their lives. The flood water breached the flood levels to inundate innumerable houses and even a hospital. In 2020 too, Bhairoba Nala breached its limits.

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Cloud Burst

उत्तराखंड: चौथान में ‘बादल फटा’, आपदा तंत्र फिर नदारद

August 2, 2021 SANDRPLeave a comment

बुधवार-गुरुवार (28-29 जुलाई) की दरमियानी रात में हुई अत्यधिक बारिश ने पौड़ी जिले की थलीसैंण तहसील में स्थित चौथान पट्टी के कई गांवों को प्रभावित किया है। गनीमत है कि कोई हताहत नहीं हुआ है लेकिन गांव और सार्वजनिक सम्पति के अलावा स्थानीय फसलों को भारी नुकसान हुआ है।

जहां जिले के अंतिम हिस्से में बेतहाशा बारिश हुई, वहीं डुमणीकोट के ग्रामीणों ने ‘बादल फटने’ की घटना से मची तबाही की सूचना दी। यह गांव पौड़ी-चमोली-अल्मोड़ा जिलों की सीमा पर स्थित है।

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 020821: Disappointing UKD HC order on Chamoli disaster: Will SC intervene please?

August 2, 2021February 20, 2026 SANDRP1 Comment

( Feature image:- Women members of Raini village’s gram sabha, Source: Atul Sati/ Facebook/The Quint)

The July 14, 2021 order of Uttarakhand HC, dismissing the petition of those affected by the Chamoli disaster of Feb 2021 and asking that NTPC, developer of the Tapovan Vishnugad project be accountable, is most distressing. While Indian judiciary is rightly credited with doing a lot for the cause of environment and people in general, in the unequal battle of the communities and activists against injustice and negligence of giant projects and their developers, the judiciary has more often failed to ensure that the developers are held accountable and are not allowed to bulldoze ahead using their might, supported by the state, to crush attempts to achieve just and democratic results. In the Chamoli disaster, there are many many questions that remained unanswered and one expected the HC to use the petition to seek those answers. But in stead, the HC has chose to question and fine the petitioners. One hopes the higher judiciary will correct this and stay the order and in stead seek answers from the developers of the hydro projects in such fragile, disaster prone areas and those that sanctioned such projects, including the environment ministry, the state government, the CWC, the CEA, the Geological Survey of India and also the project developers.

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Cloud Burst

Uttarakhand: ‘Cloud Burst’ in Chauthan, Disaster Preparedness Missing Again

August 2, 2021August 2, 2021 SANDRPLeave a comment

Excessive rainfall in the intervening night July 28-29 2021 has impacted several villages in Chauthan Patti under Thailisain tehsil of Pauri district. Fortunately there has been no casualties reported however village & public infrastructure and also the crops have suffered huge damages.

While heavy downpour lashed out the large parts of the district, the villagers of Dumdikot also reported of a ‘cloud burst’ incident causing significant destruction. The village is located at the trijunction of Pauri-Chamoli-Almora districts border.

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Monsoon · Rainfall

June July 2021 District Wise SW Monsoon Rainfall in India

July 31, 2021August 1, 2021 SANDRP2 Comments

In the just concluded month of July 2021, India received 266.1 mm rainfall, that is 6.73% below normal July rainfall of 285.3 mm, as per India Meteorological Department (IMD). This is in contrast with June 2021 rainfall, that was almost 11% surplus over Normal rainfall. Not only that surplus has been wiped out by the July 2021 deficit, the overall June July 2021 rainfall now is 449 mm, or about 0.7% below normal rainfall of 452.2 mm, as per IMD.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 260721: “Unprecedented rainfall” used to escape responsibility?

July 26, 2021February 20, 2026 SANDRP3 Comments

(Feature image source: India TV https://www.indiatvnews.com/news/india/monsoon-mayhem-maharashtra-floods-landslides-death-toll-latest-news-721924)

As Maharashtra faced the worst flood disaster of SW Monsoon 2021 in India, we see the phrases like “unprecedented rainfall”, “record breaking rainfall”, “frequent landslides” etc. with increasing frequency along with phrases like climate change floating around. While these are not entirely incorrect claims, these should not be used to escape the responsibility and accountability for failing to either accurately forecast the rainfall or to manage the proportions of disasters, including operation of dams, encroachments into water bodies and water path, not accurately marking locations vulnerable to landslides in landslide prone areas or taking up inappropriate “development” projects in vulnerable areas. All of these factors can be seen at play in disasters this monsoon in Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh among others.

Using such phrases, there is an attempt to escape the accountability or responsibility. This is a culture increasing being propagated by Central Water Commission as they did in Kerala in 2018 and Krishna basin floods in Maharashtra in 2019 as in numerous other occasions. It is known now to everyone that climate change is going to lead to more instances of heavy rainfall that can frequently fall in unprecedented category, but that only means we need to take measures to reduce the damage in such instances, predict them accurately and manage them effectively. That is what the Action Plans for Climate Change and Disaster Management apparatus needs to work on, but we have clearly failed there so far.

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Monsoon · Rainfall

High Rainfall days in India’s districts in June 2021

July 23, 2021August 5, 2021 SANDRPLeave a comment

An analysis of the daily district wise rainfall data from India Meteorological Department (IMD) for the month of June 2021, the first month of India’s South West Monsoon 2021 shows that there were 442 instances when district rainfall of a day was above 50 mm, which is high considering that the normal monthly rainfall of India in this month is 166.9 mm, or daily average rainfall is about 5.6 mm. Such high rainfall instances included 371 instances when rainfall was 50-100 mm, 59 instances when it was 100-150 mm, 5 times it was 150-200 mm and 7 times above 200 mm. As noted in detailed article, the June 2021 rainfall all over India was 11% above normal.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 190721: Unprecedented Europe floods another wake up call

July 19, 2021February 20, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature image:- Germany mounts huge rescue effort after floods leave dozens dead and many more missing https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/15/europe/germany-deaths-severe-flooding-intl/index.html)

The Europe floods this last week are unprecedented in so many respects. It has lead to close to 200 confirmed deaths so far, affected the Rhine basin areas of Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland and Luxembourg. It is the result of worst recorded rainfall in a century, leading to unprecedented water levels that rose so suddenly that otherwise super alert and smart disaster management system could not neither accurately and in time predict the catastrophe nor remove these people from the path of the destruction. The climate scientists are seeing clear signature of climate change, though more studies are called for. The call for urgent and much more action to reverse the global warming are getting louder in a continent where possibly the climate action is most advanced.

As The New York Times reported on July 19, 2021 (Monday),

The authorities ordered new evacuations on Saturday, and heavy rains in the southern German region of Bavaria caused still more flooding on Sunday.

German meteorologists called the flooding the worst in 500 years, if not a millennium. The disaster thrust the issue of climate change to the center of pivotal elections this fall.

Belguim: Street pavements burst open, houses flattened, and entire villages were destroyed in what’s being described as one of the worst flooding disasters to hit Western Europe in more than two centuries. In Liège, Belgium’s third-largest city, water from the Meuse river overflowed Thursday evening into parts of the city center, prompting city officials to call for residents to evacuate the area or seek higher ground.

Countries like India should see this as a major and yet another wake up call to start taking action to reverse the global warming emissions. Much more can and should be done urgently.

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