Blaming Sarbari I Small Hydro Power (HEP) project for causing reoccurring disasters, the villagers of Mashana panchayat in Lag Valley of Kullu district have demanded suspension of the 4.5 Mw project operation. As per the villagers the leakages in the surge shaft and head race tunnel and burst of penstock of the project in August and Sept. months this year have caused landslides and flash flood disasters impacting their land and livelihoods. They have said that due to these disasters about 80 meter Mashana link road, some houses, a water tank and over hundreds of bigha of fertile farmland have been severely damaged.
Continue reading “Himachal Pradesh: Kullu Villagers Demand Suspension of Sarbari-I SHEP”Tag: Beas River
July 2025: Flash Flood Destroys Patikari Hydro Project in Himachal
(Feature Image: Dam site of Patikari HEP destroyed by the flash flood.)
A ‘cloudburst’ induced deluge on the intervening night of June 30 and July 01, 2025 has totally destroyed the Patikari Hydroelectric Power (HEP) project in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh. The 16 Mw project was built in Gudah village on Bakhali khad (Kuklah stream) a tributary of Beas River upstream Pandoh dam. The main project structures including the dam site and powerhouse have been washed away in the disaster. The 12 workers of the project managed to escape in the nick of time.
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Himachal Pradesh 25 June 2023: Cloud Bursts Damage 2 Hydro Projects
(Feature Image: Under construction 66 Mw Dhaulasiddh hydro project site in Hamirpur. Image Source: ETV Bharat)
With the onset of south west monsoon 2023, Himachal Pradesh has witnessed multiple incidents of ‘cloud bursts’ leading to destruction in Solan, Shimla, Hamirpur and Kullu between June 24-25. The extreme rainfall and resultant flash flood spells have caused widespread destruction to farms, cowsheds, local roads, bridges, vehicles and other public infrastructural in these districts.
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UHL hydro project disaster needs independent probe
On May 16, 2020[i], the penstocks of the 100 MW Uhl III project at Lad Bhadol in Mandi in Himchal Pradesh, under testing, burst, leading to flooding of downstream power house. 30 people working at the project were trapped but all have been rescued to safety. The power house is about 150 m from the burst point in Chulla village. Continue reading “UHL hydro project disaster needs independent probe”
DRP NB 27 April 2020: For whom is this unviable Etalin project being pushed?
In the ongoing debate on forest clearance for the controversial Etalin Hydropower project in Dibang Valley in Arunachal Pradesh between the Forest Advisory Committee, The Hindustan Times’s consistent reporting and Sanctuary magazine launching a campaign along with others, one (of the many) key question that remains unanswered is: for whom this economically (in addition to socially, environmentally and from climate change perspective) unviable, massively expensive project being pushed in a power surplus country?
Electricity from hydropower projects is no longer economically viable, since cheaper options are available. Some misguided people are claiming virtue in hydropower project claiming it provides peaking power. The fact is India is today not only power surplus, the peak power deficit has been just around 1% or less for long time. This when there is no attempt to either monitor as to how much of the electricity produced from existing hydropower projects provides peaking power, nor is there any attempt to achieve optimisation of operation of existing hydro projects to produce maximum possible hydropower. Nor is there any attempt to even manage the peaks either through pricing or other policy measures. In such a situation there is clearly no justification for more hydro for peaking. Moreover, the storage option is becoming increasingly cost effective, reducing the peaking power needs. So then for whom this project whose cost won’t be less than Rs 30000 crores at most conservative estimates, being pushed? The contractors, the equipment suppliers, the hydro lobby, the consultants, the timber lobby, the dam lobby, or the kickbacks?
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Cloud Bursts in Himachal Pradesh in Monsoon 2019
Cloud burst incidents are emerging as a major threat for the Himalayan states. Of late, the extreme weather event have been causing large scale destruction in ecologically sensitive and remotely located vulnerable hilly areas. In 2018 between May 2 and July 20, the Uttarakhand state saw around 13 cloud bursts event which have increased to 23 in 2019 monsoon season resulting in wide scale damages.
This compilation for Himachal Pradesh state shows that the state is suffering even bigger destruction of infrastructure including roads, buildings, bridges and hydro projects due to increasing cloud burst events. At the same time the monitoring and mitigation efforts are totally insufficient and inadequate.
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DRP New Bulletin 18 February 2019: Salutes to the Mithi River Clean up Effort
As this report narrates, a great volunteer effort is underway in Mumbai to clean up Mithi river. What they have achieved is just about 350 m of clean river, after labouring over weekends for several months. But this is such a daunting task to even venture to start. They have not only started, but made visible progress. Let us hope it will achieve all its objectives.
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DRP News Bulletin 7 January 2019: NGT REJECTS FLAWED GROUNDWATER NOTIFICATION
Good to see NGT rejecting the flawed Groundwater notification dated Dec 12, 2018 from CGWA that was also critiqued by SANDRP: https://sandrp.in/2018/12/31/groundwater-governance-why-dec-12-2018-cgwa-notification-would-be-disastrous/. However, NGT should have asked an independent panel to formulate the policy for sustainable groundwater use, rather than a committee of the same government persons. Besides, there is also need for restructuring of currently totally ineffective CGWA and make it COMPLETELY INDEPENDENT of government.
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DRP News Bulletin 10 Dec. 2018: Yamuna Pollution; Will NGT Panel Make Any Difference?
Feature image: A Hindu woman worships the sun god in the polluted waters of River Yamuna during Chhath Puja in New Delhi, on Nov. 14. (Image Source: Quartz India.)
In its latest report, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) appointed monitoring committee overseeing Yamuna River cleaning progress in Delhi says that the river is “fighting to stay alive” and it would not be possible to rejuvenate the Yamuna unless minimum environmental flow is provided as it is “virtually reduced to a trickle and remains dry in some stretches for almost nine months of the year”.
In the action plan, it is mentioned that “Although the Yamuna river flows only for 54 kilometres from Palla to Badarpur through Delhi, the 22 km stretch from Wazirabad to Okhla, which is less than 2 per cent of the river length of 1370 km from Yamunotri to Allahabad, accounts for about 76 per cent of the pollution level in the river”.
The committee has suggested that a team of scientists be formed from CPCB, DPCC and other institutions like IIT Delhi or NEERI to carry out inspections and submit reports to it for remedial action. The team can look into the risks and benefits of an alternative way of routing the same quantity of water which can help in reducing the pollution level, it said.
The monitoring committee also raised objection to the capacity utilisation of common effluent treatment plant (CETP) which is as low as 25 per cent. There are 28 industrial clusters in Delhi and 17 of these are connected to 13 CETPs. The remaining 11 clusters are not connected to any CETP. Another area of concern is the direct discharge of completely unregulated waste from industries and residences into the river.
World Fisheries Day 2018: India’s Increasing Fish Kill Incidents
21 November is celebrated as world fisheries day across the world. Apart from crucial source of food and livelihood to lakhs of fisherfolks in India, fish diversity determines the health of the water body including lakes, ponds and rivers. However with growing threats and pollution mass fish mortality has been taking place in various rivers and lakes in the country every year. On World Fisheries Day 2018 SANDRP has put together known mass fish kill incidents that took place this past year to highlight the gravity of threat so that corrective measures can be taken by respective Governments and others concerned.
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SANDRP 