In the third month of South West Monsoon season 2025, we have been able to track at least 23 flood monitoring sites of the Central Water Commission (CWC) where the respective rivers have crossed their Highest Flood Level (HFL). These 23 sites are spread over 5 river basins -11 sites in Ganga basin, 9 sites in Indus basin & 1 each in Mahi, Godavari and Krishna basins.
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DRP 220925: India urgently needs National Silt Policy, Prudent silt management
(Feature Image: As the floodwaters recede, silt deposition has been observed in many parts of Mand area in Sultanpur Lodhi, Kapurthala.)
There are a number of stories this week and throughout the ongoing SW monsoon, where the key central figure is the same: Silt. This is true in case of reports about silting of dams, silting of rivers, illegal dumping of silt in rivers and dams, accumulated silt choking Punjab and Delhi rivers, and even a suggestion that what Indus Basin needs is silt management policy.
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Yamuna Floodplain: Will DDA Review Riverfront Projects or Continue Ad-hoc Experiments?
(Feature Image: Entrance of flooded Asita East project site on Sept. 05, 2025. Credit: Surendar Solanki)
First the July 2023 and now the September 2025 flood spells in Yamuna has inundated and affected several of DDA’s beautification projects being developed on the Yamuna floodplain over past 8 years. These projects were earlier labelled as part of floodplain rejuvenation but now are being termed as riverfront projects. The violations of norms, ambiguity in progress, potential detrimental impacts on floodplain eco-system, vulnerability to flood damages make it necessary that DDA critically review the projects at this stage rather than continue to waste public money and damage to floodplain in an ad-hoc manner. A photo blog showing impact inf Sept. 2025 floods on these projects can be seen here.
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Yamuna Photo Blog Sept 2025: ‘Riverfront’ Projects submerged Again
(Feature Image: Entrace of Asita West projects flooded with Yamuna water on Sept. 05. 2025. Credit: Surendar Solanki)
Through pictures and satellite imagery, this blog documents the impact of Sept. 2025 Yamuna flood on Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) riverfront projects. These 10 projects are being developed over the past 8 years in river floodplain and had also suffered damages during July 2023 floods. Earlier they were called part of floodplain rejuvenation but now being termed as Yamuna riverfront projects. DDA website has only shown name, size and location of riverfront projects, however has maintained secrecy on important factors of cost, progress, delays, damage and losses concerning these projects.
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DRP 150925: Flawed, dishonest Kalai-II HEP EIA
It’s heartening to see the Editorial in Arunachal Times (see below) about the flawed, dishonest, cut and paste Environment Impact Assessment report of the Kalai-II Hydropower project in Arunachal Pradesh. NEHR has written about this to the Anjaw district Deputy Commissioner and one hopes the DC has the courage to take appropriate action: Halt the public hearing and ask the project proponent to get a proper EIA done by a competent and honest consultant. WAPCOS Ltd, which has done the current flawed EIA has been known to do such flawed EIAs on numerous occasions in the past as we have written about it and also informed the MoEF, Expert Appraisal Committee on River Valley Committee, without any impact so far unfortunately.
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Aug 2025: High Rainfall days in India’s districts
An analysis of the daily district wise rainfall data from India Meteorological Department (IMD) for the month of Aug 2025 shows that there were 664 (717 in Aug 2024; 500 in Aug 2023; 667 in Aug 2022[i] and 431 in Aug 2021) instances when rainfall of a day in a district was above 50 mm. Such high rainfall instances included 563 (572/ 424/ 553/ 371 in Aug 2024, Aug 2023, Aug 2022 and Aug 2021 respectively) instances when rainfall was 50-100 mm; 79 (113/ 67/ 98/ 48 in Aug 2024, Aug 2023, Aug 2022 and Aug 2021 respectively) instances when it was 100-150 mm; 13 (19/ 5/ 13/ 11 in Aug 2024, Aug 2023, Aug 2022 and Aug 2021 respectively) times it was 150-200 mm; and 9 (13/ 4/ 3/ 1 in Aug 2024, Aug 2023, Aug 2022 and Aug 2021 respectively) instance when a district day rainfall was above 200 mm.
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June Aug 2025: District wise rainfall in India’s SW Monsoon
In Aug 2025, India received just 268.8 mm (295.5 mm or 15.8% above normal in Aug 2024[i], 162.7 mm or 36.2% below normal in Aug 2023[ii], 263.8 mm in Aug 2022, 3.5% above the normal[iii]) or 5.45% above normal rainfall of 254.9 mm as per India Meteorological department (IMD). In Aug 2021, the rainfall was 195.9 mm[iv], about 24.13% below normal and in Aug 2020, the rainfall was 327 mm[v], or about 26.6% above normal.
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Sept. 2025: Six Killed in Luti Dam Flood Disaster in Chhattisgarh
(Feature Image: Damaged Sadsa Luti dam in Balrampur)
A flash flood disaster caused by a significant breach in Luti dam bund has killed six people while one remained missing in Dhaneshpur village near Vishram Nagar under Balrampur district of Chhattisgarh. Six of the flood victims are members of a single family living about 500 meter downstream from the dam area. About eleven villagers were swept away by strong current of waters. Some of them managed to save their lives by holding on to trees and swimming to their safety. Three persons also suffered injuries in this dam induced flood incident.
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Sept 2025: Why did Yamuna Repeat July 2023 Like Flood Spell in Delhi?
(Feature Image: NDRF team gazing at flooded relief camps at Yamuna bazar, Delhi)
In first week of September 2025, Yamuna river in Delhi has again witnessed another unusual flood spell. This is happening two years after the river recorded unprecedent flood event in July 2023. This report compares the July 2023 flood with the one in Sept 2025 underlining the probable factors making these deluges uncommon and man-made flood disaster.
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DRP 080925: Will the higher judiciary Listen?
(Feature Image: Seraj valley in Mandi district of Himachal battered by extreme weather events in July 2025)
Well known environmentalist Manshi Asher through the following article is giving a very important message that everyone, particularly Judiciary needs to listen and act upon. While higher judiciary is rightly highly respected, its track record on acting on environmental issues is far from satisfactory and leaves a lot to be desired.
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SANDRP 