Fish, Fisheries, Fisherfolk · Rivers · Teesta

Changing Course: Teesta Mahananda Rivers in North Bengal

Guest Article: Steve Lockett, Mahseer Trust

(Above: Teesta-Mahananda Link Canal, part of a water-use strategy that seems broken. Copyright: Adrian Pinder, Mahseer Trust)

Rivers change course, it is part of their being. A river changing course can bring unexpected or unwanted ramifications. Sometimes they can be quite devastating. But when they come as a result of deliberate actions to alter the river’s course how can we expect people, whole communities or wildlife to cope?

The Teesta river was previously a tributary of the Ganges then it shifted to join Brahmaputra in 1787. As with many rivers of the Ganges – Brahmaputra – Meghna basins, wholesale shifts are commonplace and to a large extent, people and wildlife have adapted to live with these hydrological movements. But when humans engineer rivers to force them to change course, expect them to bite back.

Continue reading “Changing Course: Teesta Mahananda Rivers in North Bengal”
Floods

Rivers Breaching and flowing close to HFLs in May-June 2022

In pre-monsoon month of May 2022 and first month of south west monsoon season June 2022, there have been Highest Flood Level (HFL) breach incidents at 5 sites on rivers in North East and North India. The rivers have also touched or missed crossing the HFLs at 6 sites in the region in these two months. This include Kopili river at Kampur Level Forecast (LF) site in Nagaon district of Assam breaching HFL[i] in both  May and June 2022 months and Barak river at Fulertal LF site in Cachar district, Assam narrowly missing HFL breach in May 2022 and breaching the extreme flood level in June 2022.

SANDRP has been tracking the HFL breach incidents during pre-monsoon and monsoon months for past four years. The analysis of such HFL breaches in 2018[ii], 2019[iii] and 2020[iv], May-Sept 2021[v], Oct.-Nov 2021[vi] can be seen on our website.

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central water commission

East India: 2019 Overview of CWC Flood Forecasting Sites 

Central Water Commission (CWC) is the only agency doing flood forecasting in India. CWC’s Flood Forecasting (FF) is available on its website[I]. In this article we have given an overview of CWC’s flood forecasting and monitoring sites in East India. It includes state wise list of CWC’s Level Forecast, Inflow Forecast and level monitoring sites in East India. Similar report has been published for North East India[II] and North India[III] and we hope to publish reports covering other regions of India soon. East India includes five states: Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh, Odisha and W Bengal.

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Dams · Floods

Overview of CWC Flood Forecasting Sites 2018: East India 

Central Water Commission is the only agency doing flood forecasting in India. As per CWC’s Flood Forecasting website[I] the Data Flow Map has information about 226 Flood Forecast Sites in the country comprising of 166 Level Forecast Sites and 60 Inflow Forecast Sites. It also monitors 700 Flood sites, information made available through List Based Exploration and Hydrograph View, but no flood forecasting is done for these sites.

In order to better understand the CWC’s flood monitoring and forecasting work, in this article we have given an overview of CWC’s flood forecasting and monitoring sites in East India. It includes state wise list of CWC’s Level Forecast, Inflow Forecast and level monitoring sites in East India. Similar report has been published for North India[II] and North East India[III] and we hope to publish reports covering other regions of India too. 

Continue reading “Overview of CWC Flood Forecasting Sites 2018: East India “

Bihar · Floods · Ganga

Ganga basin faces unprecedented floods in Aug 2017

Ganga Basin, particularly Bihar is facing unprecedented floods, starting on Aug 12, 2017. Water levels of Major tributaries of Ganga, including Kosi, Mahananda, Rapti, Ghagra, Bagmati, Gandak and Kamlabalan are close to or above the historically highest flood levels almost simultaneously. This has rarely happened in the past. The water level of Ghagra is close to HFL at Elgine Bridge in Barabanki district in Uttar Pradesh. Most other flood forecasting sites in North Bihar and East UP were shown as pink dots on CWC flood forecasting map on Aug 13-15, signifying that water level at these sites was above the danger level. This is possibly the beginning, this wave is expected to rise as it travels down towards Bihar and then W Bengal and Bangladesh. Continue reading “Ganga basin faces unprecedented floods in Aug 2017”