The Key message that came through from all the panelists and North India Sand mining presentation was that if we are to see any improvement in the murky state of sand mining that is a threat to everyone today, then we urgently need key role for the local communities and civil society in sand mining governance. The second loud & clear message was that the Supreme Order of 2012 on the need for environmental appraisal and clearance of sand mining leases stands violated in letter and spirit by the Union Government. These messages also provide us the way forward.
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Durga Shakti Nagpal at India Rivers Week 2020: Civil society have important role to play in sand mining governance
Transcript of famous, courageous IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal’s address and Question Answer session at North Zone Dialogue on “IS SAND MINING KILLING OUR RIVERS” at India Rivers Week 2020 on Oct 31, 2020. It’s a must read for the amazing clarity and forthrightness that she spoke about her experience in taking on Sand Mining Mafia in her very first posting as IAS officer, as SDM Greater Noida in UP in 2013. She describes the dramatic circumstances under which her team was attacked in the middle of the night and how they survived what looked like a certain end of life episode. And she also talks about the biopic being made on her and who are likely heroines and whom she prefers!
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Dam Floods & Embankment Breaches in South West Monsoon 2020
Improper operations of dams, disasters related to dams and hydro projects and breaching of embankments have been aggravating flood disasters during every monsoon. There have been several such incidents during South West Monsoon 2020, taking heavy toll on people and property which could have been avoided or impacts reduced in many cases with proper dam operations and proper maintenance of the embankments. This compilation attempts to put together all such instances when avoidable flood disasters were created by improper operation of dams and breaching of embankments in the south west monsoon 2020.
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IMD continues callous reporting of River Wise Rainfall in Monsoon 2020
This rarely gets reported in media, but IMD (India Meteorological Department) also provides river basin wise rainfall figures. Here is an overview of the river basin wise rainfall during SW Monsoon 2020 (June-Sept 2020, though the monsoon withdrew much later), like the way we have been doing for the last three years[i]. Our earlier monsoon 2020 articles provided district wise figures for rainfall in June 2020[ii], June-July 2020[iii], June-Aug 2020[iv] and June Sept 2020[v].
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DRP: 2 Nov. 2020: Citizen Efforts to Save our Rivers
It’s heartening to see at least three citizen efforts that media has brought to limelight this week, two in Odisha and one from the banks of Godavari river in Nasik. Besides being citizen efforts, one common theme is that all these initiatives is that they concern rivers. Great news to celebrate in this festival season, also when India Rivers Week is also conducting weekly Dialogues on River sand mining.
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Durgapur Barrage on Damodar Damaged again: Its Dam Safety under World Bank-AIIB projects
Late on Friday (Oct 30 ,2020) night the gate no 31 of the Durgapur barrage suffered heavy damage, leading to emptying of the barrage and major disruption of the domestic, industrial and irrigation water supply. Shockingly, the Dam Safety aspects of the 65-year-old barrage on the border of Bankura-W Bardhaman districts of West Bengal[i] on Damodar river is under the World Bank and AIIB funded projects. This episode again[ii] puts a big question mark over credibility of the World Bank’s performance on dam safety issues in India, just a day after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs headed by the Prime Minister cleared massive Rs 10211 Cr WB funded dam safety project[iii].
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Riverbed mining 2020: East & North East India
This compilation covers the Riverbed mining issue in remaining states of East and North East India in the past eighteen months. There were not enough media reports on the issue of sand mining in remaining states of East and North East India. Hence we have prepared the single compilation covering these states. We have also put some informative reports from previous years which we had not compiled earlier to highlight the problems of illegal mining.
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Odisha River Sand Overview 2020: Another mining ravaged state
The overview presents picture of river sand mining in Odisha based on available information in public domain from past 18 months.
Illegal Sand Mining Incidents
May 2019 Brick kilns spur illegal mining Scores of illegal brick kilns operating in Samana and Habaleswar panchayats under Hatadihi block in Keonjhar district had spurred illegal mining from riverbeds. As a result, the state government was losing crores of rupees revenue. The miners had encroached upon government and pastureland and set up brick kilns without sanction of the Odisha State Pollution Control Board.
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DRP: 26 Oct 2020: Why Floods is not big issue in Bihar elections?
Or may be it is a major issue at a number of places. Like in Kishanganj district along Mahananda river in North East Bihar, as the report here mentions. We hope it is. Since floods and how they are managed affect so fundamentally and in so many different ways so many people, it should be an election issue. Particularly when the incumbent Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is fighting to be voted in after being the Chief Minister of the state for 15 years since Nov 2005 (except brief ten month period in 2014-15).
15 years is long enough time to have been able to make at least some dent in flood management. On ground, the situation seems to have only gone worse. It was in this 15 year period that the unprecedented Kosi floods happened after the Kusaha breach in 2008. But the word unprecedented has been used for several more floods in these 15 years, including by Nitish Kumar. He also raised a number of pertinent issues in this period, including impact of Farakka barrage on Bihar floods, need for its decommissioning, Bihar’s right to get Ganga water from the headwaters in Uttarakhand [currently it gets none except during monsoon]. He is currently silent on these issues, but voters and media do not have to be silent.
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Krishna-Bhima basin floods in Oct 2020 breaks 56-year-old record
Krishna basin is again facing unprecedented floods, for the second straight year. Unprecedented is a bit of overused word these days, but consider the facts: At no less than ten locations, the Highest Flood Levels (HFL) ever recorded at those locations in the Krishna basin were surpassed (nine locations) or equaled (one location). Some of the HFLs surpassed this year were amazing 56, 51 and 44-year-old records! And imagine most of this happening in second half of Oct 2020, when South West monsoon is traditionally over by end of Sept! There is no doubt the floods were unprecedented.
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SANDRP 