2025: Fly Ash Dam Breach Flood in India

December 6, 2025December 6, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: HTPS fly ash dam breach floods farmlands in Korba in June 2025. Source)

In 2025 we could find one incident of fly ash dam breach flood in India. The incident happened in Dindolbhantha village area near Chhirhut under Katghora tehsil of Korba district in Chhattisgarh on June 26, 2025. The fly ash dam covering around 60 ha is created by Chhattisgarh State Power Generation Company (CSPGC) formerly known as Chhattisgarh State Electricity Board (CSEB) to store fly ash slurry from 840 Mw (210X4) Hasdeo Thermal Power Station (HTPS) also known as Korba West Thermal Power Station (KWTPS).

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2023: Fly Ash Bund Breach Incidents in India

January 4, 2024 SANDRPLeave a comment

During 2023, we have found two incidents of fly ash bund breach in India. The first incident occurred in Waregaon under Kamptee taluka of Nagpur, Maharashtra in morning hours of July 19, 2023. The fly ashy pond belonged to Khaparkheda Thermal Power Station (KTPS) which is owned by Maharashtra State Power Generation Co Ltd (MAHAGENCO) a state-run power company.

The fly ash pond was brimful following heavy rainfall when a portion of its wall collapsed around 08:00 am. Resultantly, about 15 agricultural farms were flooded with toxic slurry damaging the crops. About 100 acres of agricultural land were filled with fly ash sludge which also entered the Kanhan River.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP NB 261222: People on roads against hydro projects that govt is pushing

December 26, 2022 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Joshimath residents staging protest against land sinking and damages to their homes demanding rehabilitation & halt in NTPC’s Tapovan Vishnugad HEP tunnel work on Dec. 24, 2022. Image source: Atul Sati, Joshimath)

People of at least four states are opposing hydropower projects that the central and state governments are pushing, ignoring all the ground realities. In Uttarakhand, the Joshimath residents are on roads to wake up the government that seems deaf to their protests due to their houses cracking and land subsiding due to the tunnels being blasted for hydropower projects and Char Dham highway being built ignoring the voices of not only the affected people, but also the experts.

In Arunachal Pradesh, people have been writing to the central govt authorities against the Etalin and Dibang projects being pushed in Dibang valley of Brahmaputra basin.

In Himachal Pradesh, the people of Kinnaur and Lahaul Spiti districts have made it an election issue the destructive hydropower projects being pushed there both by the state and central governments.

In Andhra Pradesh too people have been protesting against the pump storage projects being given permission in schedule tribe areas without their prior informed consent and ignoring the statutory requirements.

2022 is thus ending with people’s active protests across the country against destructive, disaster prone and unviable projects being pushed against their wishes and in violation of any proper consultations or even any credible impact assessments. In the escalating impacts of climate change, these projects are even more problematic as they not only worsen the adaptive capacity of people and invite more frequent, intense and spread of the disasters, but they also destroy the mitigation tools like forests and flowing rivers. This when all these projects are not even economically viable, and when better, cheaper options are available. It would be best if sooner the government listens to the people and stop pursuing such projects.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP NB 28 June 2021: Where is the impact of lessons of the water conservation efforts that Modi praises, on his government’s water projects and policies?

June 28, 2021June 28, 2021 SANDRP1 Comment

When the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Mentioned some exemplary water conservation efforts in his Mann ki Baat on June 27, 2021, it was not for the first time he was doing it. These are certainly most welcome.

However, these mentions raise a number of questions. If the Prime Minister considers these local water options as exemplary, which they indeed are, where do we see the reflection of the lessons from such efforts in government programs and policies? In fact why there is no reflection of such lessons in what the government does in water sector? How can the government justify the destruction of Panna Tiger Reserve, over 9000 ha of forests, some 46 lakh trees, the catchment of Ken river and large part of Bundelkhand in the name of Ken Betwa Link Project, in the same Bundelkhand. How can his government justify the destructive projects like the Char Dham Highway, the big hydro projects and so on in the same Uttarakhand where Sachidanand Bharati (who was incidentally recipient of the Bhagirath Prayas Samman of India Rivers Week) works, whose efforts the PM praised? One hope the PM and his government will be awake to the implications and lessons of the works that PM praises.

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Dam Safety · Dams

Singrauli Fly Ash Dam Breach: Who regulates these dams in India?

April 12, 2020June 27, 2020 SANDRP1 Comment

A fly ash Dam of Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project of Reliance Company has breached [i] in the evening of April 10, 2020, near village Harrahva in Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh, killing six people and destroying downstream river and fields. Following the breach there was massive flash flood of coal ash mixed sludge reportedly affecting hundreds of villages and destroying crops on thousands of acres.

Of the six people feared to have been killed in the flash floods, dead bodies of two have been found in faraway areas, while four are still missing. Two women injured in the aftermath are reported to be in stable condition in local hospital. Reports also suggest that many people could be trapped in their homes because of the poisonous sludge.

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