Himachal Pradesh: Why CWC’s Forecasting is Unavailable Amidst Flood Disaster?

July 9, 2025July 9, 2025 SANDRP1 Comment

(Feature Image: Screenshot of inactive hydrograph for Solang station on Beas river in Mandi district. Source: CWC Flood Forecast website)

Despite disastrous flood events causing significant destruction to human lives and infrastructures for past three years, the state of Himachal Pradesh has not seen much required improvements in flood monitoring and forecast servicesby the Central Water Commission’s (CWC) to help minimize the destruction toll.

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Climate Change · Dams · Hydro Power Projects · Rivers

DRP 070725: Demand for Commission of Inquiry on Hydro Obsession in Himachal

July 7, 2025July 7, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

(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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Beas · Climate Change · Cloud Burst · Hydro Disaster

July 2025: Flash Flood Destroys Patikari Hydro Project in Himachal

July 3, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

(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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Climate Change · Dams, Rivers & People

DRP 30 June 2025: Dam Safety concerns arise as monsoon sets in

June 30, 2025June 30, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

(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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Climate Change · Cloud Burst · Hydro Disaster

June 2025: ‘Cloudburst’ damages Jiwa hydro project in Sainj Valley, Himachal Pradesh

June 27, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Submerged powerhouse of Jiwa SHP in Siund, Sainj. Source: Amar Ujala)

A massive flash flood following a ‘cloudburst’ has totally damaged the powerhouse and weir site of the Jiwa Small Hydroelectric Project (SHP) in Sainj Valley of Kullu district, Himachal Pradesh on June 25, 2025. The powerhouse of 1 Mw SHP is located in Siund village area near the confluence point of Jiwa nullah with Pin Parbati river. Its weir site is located about 2 km upstream on the Jiwa stream.

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floodplains · Free flowing rivers · River Restoration · Yamuna River

Yamuna Manthan June 2025: Positive water, river stories from Yamuna basin

June 19, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

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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Climate Change · Dams · Groundwater · Rivers · Water

DRP 16 June 2025: “Indus River older than its landscape, Himalayas”

June 16, 2025June 16, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

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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Climate Change · Dams · Rivers · Water · Water Options

DRP 020625

June 2, 2025June 16, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

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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Climate Change · Cloud Burst · Hydro Power Projects

Jammu & Kashmir: ‘Cloudburst’ damages Karnah HEP in Jhelum Basin in May 2025

May 29, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Screenshot of video shared by Kashmir Weather on X platform showing powerhouse of 12 Mw Karnah HEP flooded after ‘cloudburst’ disaster on May 27, 2025 evening)

A ‘cloudburst’ induced deluge and landslide has severely affected the under construction 12 Mw Karnah Hydro Power Project in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district in evening hours of May 27, 2025. The extreme weather event between 04:45 PM to 05:45 PM, flooded the project.

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Dams · DRP News Bulletin

DRP 260525: Opposition to large hydro as strategic projects

May 26, 2025February 28, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(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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