A landslide incident has partially damaged the power house tunnel of NHCP’s Dhauliganga HEP in Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand. The incident occurred in the evening of Aug 30, 2025 after heavy rainfall also blocked the mouth of underground tunnel with rocks and debris. The HEP is built on Dhauliganga river in Dharchula tehsil of the district.
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Aug 2025: Surwal Dam Floods Villages in Sawai Madhopur-Rajasthan
(Feature Image: Surwal dam flood creates a huge crater in Jarwata village in Sawai Madhopur)
Overflowing of Surwal dam in Rajasthan has severely affected over a dozen villages for more than three days. The dam in Sawai Madhopur district overflowed following excessive rainfall on Aug 22-24, 2025[i]. The Surwal, Mainpura, Jarwata were among the most affected villages where several houses were submerged under 3-5 feet flood water damaging foodgrains and other essential items.
At least 13 people have been reported dead in the district in this flood episode.
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DRP 250825: Threat of Dam Floods continue to be ignored
(Feature Image: The release of water from Pong Dam has brought devastation to Mand Bhograwan village in Kangra district, where the sudden rise in the Beas river has submerged several acres of fertile land and put houses at risk. Aug 17.)
Sudden release of large quantity of water from the dams has the potential of creating avoidable floods in the downstream areas as we could see last week in case of Ukai Dam water releases affecting Surat in South Gujarat, Ujani and Jayakwadi dam water releases in Maharashtra, Bhakra and Pong dam releases in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, among others. In all these cases, we can show that earlier water release was warranted based on available information, considering the carrying capacity of the downstream river, but such action was delayed till either the dam was full before water started (e.g. Ujani and Jayakwadi) or too large water releases created avoidable flood impacts in case of Ukai Dam on Tapi River in South Gujarat and also in case of Bhakra and Pong dams. There were also extensive damages in Mirzapur and Chandauli districts of Uttar Pradesh due to sudden release of water from a number of dams including Chandra Prabha Dam, Ahraura dam and Jargo Dam among others.
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Aug 2025: Yamuna Flows Blocked at Syana Chatti in Uttarakhand
(Feature Image: Buildings submerged in artificial lake following blockage in Yamuna river at Syana Chatti)
Blockage of Yamuna flows has resulted in formation of an artificial lake in the Yamuna river on August 21, 2025 at Syana Chatti in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand. The lake is a result of debris and mud floods in Kupada khad (Garh gaad) after the rains in the morning. The water level in the lake dipped in the afternoon and increased again following fresh debris slide from the stream without any rain activity around 04:30 pm.
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Aug 2025: Flood Affects Satpuli Barrage Project in Uttarakhand
(Feature Image: Flooded machines, camps and materials of Satpuli lake project on Aug 06 morning. Credit: Chain Singh Rawat (Junyali), Satpuli)
A flood spell in Nayar river (East) on Aug 6, 2025 morning has affected the ongoing construction work of Satpuli Barrage Project in Pauri district of Uttarakhand. The flood submerged some machines, heavy vehicles, worker camps and huge amount of construction materials, leading to huge losses for the construction company. All these machines, materials and camps were in the riverbed and flood zone of the river, exposing them to flood threats in the peak monsoon.
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DRP 18 Aug2025: Sustainable Hydropower an Oxymoron?
Analyzing a recent paper authored by 37 persons mainly from academics and hydropower related companies on “Sustainable Hydropower”, Eugene Simonov shows why the phrase is an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms. The paper fails to even refer to the most important work on hydropower projects, the report of the World Commission on Dams.
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DRP 040825: Arunachal Activists urge Centre to find dimensions of China’s Medog Dam
(Feature Image: Aerial view of the Yarlung Tsangpo’s Great Bend, Medog County)
Arunachal and other Himalayan states activists in a press conference in Delhi have rightly urged the Union Government to publicly demand from China all the features and dimensions of the Medog Dam on Yarlung Tsangpo river, their impact assessments and share the same promptly in public domain before even considering any project like the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP). This is important since without knowing the features, dimensions, operating procedures and impact assessments, all the projections being made about the possible impacts of the projects are completely speculative and unfounded.
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Rivers Crossing the Highest Flood Levels in July 2025
(Feature Image: Hydrograph of Pin river at Gulling site in Lahul & Spiti on July 04, 2025)
In July 2025 during the South West Monsoon, we have found rivers crossing their respective Highest Flood Levels (HFL) at least at 12 flood monitoring sites of Central Water Commission (CWC). Of the 12 sites, 11 are in Ganga basin and 1 site is in Narmada basin. The details of all these sites are given in table below. The sixth column of the table is the information about rise in meter (m) over the old HFL, duration (hours-hrs) the river has stayed in extreme floods and number of years (yrs) after the HFL is breached. The 12 sites are spread over 5 states: Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand.
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DRP 280725: CWC Guidelines on GLOF should have mandated all information in public domain, independent assessment after every GLOF
Guidelines for Structural Measures to Mitigate Adverse Effects of GLOF on Dams Central Water Commission (CWC) on July 23 has issued new guidelines to safeguard dam infrastructure from risks and threat of flash floods triggered by glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). The information about this 40 paged documents named Guidelines for Structural Measures to Mitigate Adverse Effects of GLOF on Dams July 2025 was shared by CWC director Shiv Kumar Sharma, in a LinkedIn post. The document is available in PPT format and a pdf link for the same is still not available.
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DRP 210725: Moving Joshimath Landslide a threat to Tapovan Vishnugad HEP in UKD?
(Feature Image: Hydropower Tunnel project shown in the Joshimath area along with the Watershed Boundary. This figure is generated using ArcGIS software-version 10.3.1 and CorelDraw Graphics Suite 2019 https://www.coreldraw.com/. Source: Analyzing Joshimath’s sinking: causes, consequences, and future prospects with remote sensing techniques. May 2024)
A paper in scientific journal co-authored by Internationally renowned landslide expert Dave Petley (published on June 16 2025 at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2025.108201) warns that the Joshimath landslide is moving and can threaten the under construction Tapovan Vishnugad hydropower project in Chamoli district in Uttarkhand. The paper says: “The 2023 rapid deformation at Joshimath was preceded by slow movement years ahead. Deforestation in the Joshimath region might have intensified the slope instability. Additional landslide zones were detected in Hailang, Kalpeshwar with similar pattern. Slow-moving landslides have high potential to cause often underestimated damages.”
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SANDRP 