To, July 17, 2025
1 Shri Vinai Kumar Saxena
Honorable LG, Delhi Civil Lines,
New Delhi-110054
Continue reading “Letter: Encroachment of Yamuna floodplain near Wazirabad Barrage”Tag: CPCB
DRP 140725: Dam decommissioning spreads to China
(Feature Image: Copco 2 dam removal on the Klamath River, California. Credit: Swiftwater Films, Source: American Rivers)
China decommissions hundreds of dams along Red river China has claimed to have dismantled 300 dams and decommissioned more than 90 percent of small hydropower stations along the Chishui River, also known as the Red River, a key tributary of the upper Yangtze. The move is seen as one of the largest state-led efforts to restore aquatic biodiversity in Asia’s longest river, reversing decades of hydro-infrastructure development that critically endangered native fish species, including the Yangtze sturgeon, the South China Morning Post reported.
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Yamuna Manthan July 2025: Is Delhi Ready for July 2023 like Yamuna Floods?
(Feature Image: EOS-RS Flood Proxy Map: New Delhi, Floods, 12 July 2023,v0.4)
July 13 will mark two years since the Yamuna river stretch in national capital witnessed unprecedented flood spell. The river not just submerged every part of existing available floodplain by several feet but also spilled over to reclaim its lost channels. The unusual flood also breached historic 1978 flood level at Delhi railway bridge by a huge margin, setting new benchmark.
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DRP 070725: Demand for Commission of Inquiry on Hydro Obsession in Himachal
(Feature Image: Flood ravaged Priyadarshini HEP in Manuni khad in Dharamshala, Kangra. Source: Social Media)
Hydropower obsession, Himalayan failure The massive hydropower push, another legacy of post-1990s liberalisation, has amplified vulnerability. Dams have mushroomed across river basins in Kinnaur, Lahaul-Spiti, Chamba, and Kullu — with scant regard for ecological thresholds. Muck from these construction sites is routinely dumped into riverbeds, narrowing channels and raising riverbeds. When the rains arrive, this loose muck turns into a lethal force, taking down everything in its path. The hydropower model — built on the assumption of perpetual revenue — has neither delivered long-term employment nor sustainable energy. Instead, it has left behind ecological scars, displaced communities, and made vast swathes of the state more disaster-prone.
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DRP 30 June 2025: Dam Safety concerns arise as monsoon sets in
(Feature Image: Kabini Dam. Source: WRD, Karnataka)
The SouthWest Monsoon has just set in and dam safety issues are coming up in large number of dams in Karnataka, Telangana, besides dam disasters in Himachal Pradesh. This shows how much more we need to do to assure structural and operational safety of India’s dams in changing climate.
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Yamuna Manthan June 2025: Positive water, river stories from Yamuna basin
POSITIVE YAMUNA REPORTS
Uttar Pradesh’s Noon river runs again Jalaun farmers in Bundelkhand will not have to toil too much this season to get water for crops. They have almost revived an 81km-long local river that had dried up completely. Community members have restored the drainage basin over a 14km course of Noon river to create a funnel through which water has again entered it. The river had dried up to encroachments and poor rainfall. The revival commenced in 2021 and reached the final stage only recently, with voluntary labour contributions from thousands of local men and women. Officials said the water would start flowing through the entire course of the river in a fortnight. The river is expected to help more than 15,350 farmers.
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DRP 16 June 2025: “Indus River older than its landscape, Himalayas”
INDUS RIVER: Stephen Alter, in his article “With the River by My Side” says about Indus River that some rivers are older than the landscape through which they pass: “Nowhere is this clash between hydrological and geological history more apparent than along the Indus, as it passed through Ladakh. This seemingly eternal river has followed its winding course since long before the Himalaya were formed, tossing and tumbling over. Boulders, stones and pebbles that the water polishes and grinds into sand. Eroded flanks of the mountains on either side of the river are scarred and twisted by tectonic forces that lifted giant slabs of rock more than eight kilometres into the clouds but failed to block the persistent flow of the Indus. Driving along the highway that runs parallel to the river, from Leh to Kargil, it feels as if the landscape is a timeless epic that the waters of the Indus have etched in stone.”
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DRP 020625
HYDRO POWER PROJECTS
Jammu & Kashmir In Kupwara district the 12 Mw Karnah in Kishan Ganga sub basin has joined the long list of HEP projects facing reoccurring damages, repeated delays and cost escalation in Himalayan states. The flash flood, landslides and cloudburst disasters in Feb and May 2025 have further damaged the project and extended its completion date.
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DRP 260525: Opposition to large hydro as strategic projects
(Feature Image: Lahaul Spiti Ekta manch holds a protest rally against hydel projects at Udaipur in Lahaul Spiti on Friday May 23. Source: The Tribune)
Some of the most prominent reports this week are related to wide spread opposition to large hydro projects in Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, among other states. Indeed, there is little sense in building large hydro projects as strategic assets as seems to be the case in Himachal Pradesh and J&K (Chenab basin) and Arunachal Pradesh (Siang basin, among others). Use of security forces to complete pre-feasibility survey when local communities are strongly against the project, as is being done in case of Siang Upper Multipurpose Project is clearly counter-productive in so many ways. In Kerala people have again gathered to oppose the destructive Athirapally Hydro projects that they have been successfully opposing since late 1990s.
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DRP 190525: Kaleshwaram Project to be abandoned?
(Feature Image: Medigadda barrage, part of the Kaleshwaram project, facing structural challenges due to design flaws. DC: File Photo)
One of the alarming news this week is the recommendation of irrigation experts and others to the Telangana govt is to prioritise Tummidihatti project, rather than spending limited available resources on repair of Kaleshwaram barrages: Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla, all part of the controversial and disaster hit Kaleshwaram Project. The reasoning behind the recommendation seems to be apparent difficulty to rehabilitation of the barrages with inherent unstable foundation on sand beds.
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SANDRP 