DRP 061123: Dam Disasters bring focus on Dam Safety Governance in India

November 6, 2023February 27, 2026 SANDRP1 Comment

(Feature Image: Location of washed away Teesta Urja dam. Source: Ka Shlem)

Is the Dam Safety Panel (DSP) report dated Nov 1 2023 on Medigadda barrage on Gadavari in Telangana, a self-indictment of the Dam Safety Mechanism in India?

The report concludes: “it is construed that the I&CAD (Irrigation and Command Area Development) Dept. has nothing to submit about instrumentation data, pre-monsoon &post monsoon inspection reports, completion reports, quality control reports, condition of gates and many other inputs sought in the list therein”.

How and why did the NDSA (National Dam Safety Authority) allow such a state of affairs to continue for such an important dam that has huge implications for life and economy as the report itself says? What steps did the NDSA take before this disaster struck to ensure that all these basic dam safety measures were indeed in place and functioning? What is NDSA doing to ensure that all such basic steps and measures are in place at all the large dams in India? What did NDSA do to ensure that this dam, important from the point of view of life and economy, was also listed in CWC’s National Register of Large Dams? What has NDSA done to ensure that CWC’s National Register is indeed updated every year with inclusion of all large dams of India (Large dam as per its definition) and all their salient features? What has NDSA done to ensure that all Dam Safety information is in public domain promptly?

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 301023: Top scientist Rajeev Raghavan emphasizes need to conserve River Fish

October 30, 2023February 27, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image:- Fish catch from a Ramganga stream in Pauri in June 2022. Bhim Singh Rawat/SANDRP)

It is rather rare when we hear the sane voice of a scientist like Rajeev Raghavan neglect of riverine fish conservation in India, from government, research bodies to down to grassroots level. Rajeev Raghavan, incidentally is among the 2% top scientists of the world by the Stanford University, USA. The over emphasis on fish in food, on marine fish, on exotic fish that has such a huge adverse impact on our biodiversity and lack of effort towards conservation of riverine fish are some of the key issues Raghavan emphasizes in this interview. He says most of the fish in the IUCN red list are riverine fish and yet there is so little understanding or effort to conserve such fish or their habitat.

If we see the discussions in the minutes of the meetings of the MoEF’s Expert Appraisal Committee on River Valley Projects in spite of there being permanent presence of a representative of Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, we see non-existence of any concerns about the impact of the project in riverine fisheries or those who are dependent on them for livelihoods. In fact, we see the shocking spectacle of CIFRI scientists working as consultants to the hydropower companies, working to justify such projects on the highly biodiverse rivers including those of North East India.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 231023: Need to be a little serious about Dam Safety, Flood Forecasting, Use of Early Warnings

October 23, 2023February 27, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Landslide warning board at Lakhwar dam site on Yamuna river. SANDRP, June 2015)

India need to relook the Dam Safety Act Experts say the Sikkim incident exemplifies blind spots in both legislation and implementation. The DSA does not promote risk-based decision-making and fails to incentivise transparency. Himanshu Thakkar, an environmental activist and coordinator of South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, says that the frequency and scale of such disasters reveal a pattern of neglect: “It keeps happening regularly, people face disastrous consequences and we call these ‘natural disasters’. But there’s nothing natural about them.”

A robust DSA should allow different stakeholders to access information easily, but India’s framework falls short. “Dam safety is a public purpose function. Everything about dam safety, functions of all the institutions and committees and authorities, their reports, decisions minutes and agendas, everything should be promptly available to the public,” says Mr. Thakkar. “But nothing is in the public domain.” He adds that transparency is further obstructed when national and State bodies comprise government employees and engineers who worked on these projects, compromising objective decision making and lacking “people with a proven track record of taking independent decisions.”

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Cloud Burst

Uttarakhand: Cloudbursts in SW Monsoon 2023

October 18, 2023November 6, 2023 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: A ‘cloudburst’ incident damaging crops, farmlands & threatening Majju Gawad tok of Syun village in Dasholi block, Chamoli on August 06, 2023. Source: Raftaar news)

Since 2018, SANDRP has been documenting the increasing ‘cloudburst’ related disasters taking place in the Himalayan states. This report details the occurrence of such incidents in Uttarakhand during South West monsoon 2023. Our previous report on the subject for Uttarakhand can be seen here: 2022; 2021; May 2021; 2020; 2019 & 2018.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 161023: Kaddam Dam Rehabilitation in Telangana: Many more will need this

October 16, 2023February 27, 2026 SANDRP1 Comment

(Kaddam dam spilling over with flood waters in July 2023. Image Source: SM)

Telangana’s Kaddam Dam, built with inadequate spillway capacity, has seen multiple threats and disasters over the years, starting from the very first year after its commissioning in 1958. The dam again saw threat of being washed away during monsoon this year. The Telangana government has decided to rehabilitate the dam at a cost of Rs 640-700 Cr, by reconstruction of spillway and installation of new gates. We hope the new spillway capacity will be in line with the changed monsoon rainfall pattern and will be able to take care of the higher probable maximum precipitation and higher probable maximum flood. Though we are unlikely to get to know how this is going to happen, as the standard operating procedure of all dam owners in India is secrecy rather than transparency even in dam safety aspects. One also hopes this is done at the earliest, and till that is achieved, the dam rule curve will be changed to ensure the dam does not face disastrous situations during monsoon.

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Dam Safety

Dam Safety Act & the role of Dams in the 2023 HP Floods

October 11, 2023 SANDRP8 Comments

In order to have high standards of dam safety the prerequisites are designing and constructing dams with reasonable safety margins; operating and maintaining them safely; and having emergency arrangements to address situations that might arise. Operation of dam within its ambit also includes thorough understanding of likely impacts and its management in case of flooding, in any emergency situation or in the event of dam failure, both upstream and downstream on communities living there, their livelihoods and also on infrastructure and property which can get affected. In fact in many countries like Sweden and in many states of the USA, a dam is assigned a dam safety class i.e. A, B or C depending upon the significance of the damage that might occur in case of dam failure, class A being assigned to dams whose failure might cause significance loss of public life and property. Dam safety requirements are calibrated accordingly and a higher burden is put on dam owners of higher class, concerning safety management system, emergency plans, overall assessments, and annual dam safety reporting.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 091023: MoEF Panel concerned about impacts of Small Hydro

October 9, 2023February 27, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Gangani SHP on Yamuna river in Uttarkashi affected by June 2013 flash flood. Image: Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan/July 2013)

The Forest Advisory Committee of Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) have rightly raised concerns about the impacts of so called small hydropower projects, that is hydropower projects with capacity below 25 MW. The MoEF assumes, following such unknown science or logic, that such projects have no environment and social impacts, they do not need environment and social impact assessments or management plan, they do not need any public consultation process, they do not need any monitoring or compliance and most significantly, they do not even need any clearances! A more unscientific thinking of the govt of India’s top environmental body would be difficult to find.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 021023: Why this culture of opaque governance around Joshimath?

October 2, 2023February 27, 2026 SANDRP1 Comment

(Feature Image: A temple collapses after the gradual ‘sinking’ of Joshimath in Chamoli district, on Jan. 08, 2023. PTI/HT)

It is clear that the Union and the Uttarakhand government did not want the reports prepared by different national institutes related to Joshimath Sinking, to be made public and the state High Court had to order it to do so. The government’s view of the report is clear from that. It took the judiciary so many months to finally order the report to be made public. What is it that the government wanted to hide? Why? From whom? Why is there this culture of opaque governance even in disaster management related issues? Is it growth fundamentalism that is driving the government as the single most factor? Or is it the arrogance and adamant attitude of the governance, not wanting to consider any questions raised against their decisions? Why is there so little faith in the people, society and transparent, accountable governance? Why is the judiciary allowing such a culture to prevail generally?

These are some of the key questions that arise from this and other such episodes.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 250923: World Rivers vs Indian Rivers on Rivers Day 2023

September 25, 2023February 27, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Najafgarh drain loaded with polluted water joining River Yamuna downstream Wazirabad barrage in National Capital in June 2023: SANDRP)

Sept 24 is celebrated as the World Rivers day since 2005, the tradition started by river advocate Mark Angelo, who used to celebrate BC (British Columbia in Canada) Rivers day since 1980. There is some good news for rivers across the world in terms of decommissioning of dams, improving environment flows, movements to clean rivers, improve fish migration, protection of flood plains, room for the river, decommissioning of channelisation projects, among others.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 180923: Floodplain loss, the biggest in Asia, disaster in the making

September 18, 2023February 27, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Ongoing ghat work along Yamuna at Qudsia ghat, ISBT Dellhi. SANDRP, June 2023)

A floodplain, according to the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, is “any land area susceptible to being inundated by floodwaters from any source”. According to the report “Human alterations of the global floodplains 1992–2019”, over 460,000 sqkms of floodplain area was lost to agriculture, while another 140,000 sqkms was redeveloped to new areas over the existing floodplain. Continent-wise, Asia lost the biggest area of floodplains — a little over 200,000 sqkms — among all the continents. It was followed by South America (92,000 sqkms) and Africa (73,000 sqkms).

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